Ghouse, Kirtane to clash in the final

Top seed Mustafa Ghouse and wild card Sandeep Kirtane will clash in the men's singles final in the $6250 ITF men's Satellite tennis tournament at the Dr Ranade Tennis Centre, in Mumbai, on Saturday.

In the semi-finals on Friday, Ghouse, playing a solid baseline game, sidelined unseeded Vinod Sridhar 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) while Kirtane subdued another unseeded player, Raviv Volkovitzky of Isreal 7-5, 6-4 in an hour 38 minutes.

Ghouse looked much fitter and faster than his left handed opponent. Playing some blistering shots on either flank, he, broke Sridhar in the fifth game of the first set and then served out the set at 6-4.

In the second set, Sridhar fought back. After breaking Ghouse in the fourth game, he held serve in the fifth to take a comfortable 4-1 lead. However, local lad Ghouse just hung in and not only did he force three break-points in the seventh game, but managed to break Sridhar and reduce the deficit to 3-4. He then held serve to level at 4-all.

With both players holding serves, the match went into the tie-breaker, where Ghouse served and volleyed well to go 4-3 up and never looked back, taking the last four games in a row to win it at 7-3.

Earlier reports
Ghouse rallies to enter last four
Ghouse, Manoj Mahadevan in last eight
Japnese qualifier shocks Kirtane