India’s Dev Javia, who played his heart out in the first set, let top-seeded Khumoyun Sultanov off the hook in the semifinals of the ITF Kalaburagi Open at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium courts here on Saturday.

The Uzbek player, ranked over 450 places above the Indian, came good when it mattered to seal a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 win to set up a final showdown with Russia’s Bogdan Bobrov, who had an easier time in the other semifinal against an error-prone American Nick Chappell, winning 6-3, 6-0.

The left-handed Javia, who has had a clutch of impressive runs this season, matched the top seed in shot-making for the better part of the one-hour, 50-minute encounter. And neither did he let the defeat at the hands of Sultanov in Mumbai last week bother him.

After holding serve comfortably in his first two games, a poor service game in the sixth saw him drop his serve. However, the Indian broke right back in the seventh, Sultanov serving a double fault at breakpoint. Javia then forced his rival into errors by returning deep. A brilliant lunging return that Sultanov smashed an overhead into the net, gave the seventh seed three breakpoints. The 22-year-old duly converted that with a brilliant return of serve.

Serving for the set in the 10^th game, errors crept into his game for some strange reason, and the top seed, not looking a gift horse in the mouth, broke right back with a backhand crosscourt winner. It was even-stevens in the tiebreak too.

But Javia committed two silly errors at 5-5 to allow Sultanov take the opening set. The Indian then seemed to let the loss of the first set affect his focus and committed far too many unforced errors to let Sultanov run away with the match. The medical timeout that he took only delayed the inevitable as the Uzbek broke the Indian in the third and fifth games to take the set and match 6-2.

AGAFONOV-BOBROV PAIR TRIUMPHS

Top-seeded Russians Egor Agafonov and Bogdan Bobrov defeated the Indo-American combine of Nitin Kumar Sinha and Nick Chappell 7-5, 6-2 in the doubles title clash.

The Russians warded off a late fightback from the rivals in the first set and then sealed the second set comfortably. This was Bobrov’s fourth doubles title of the season, his second in India. He and Agafonov had emerged triumphant in Bhubaneswar two weeks ago.

Results (prefix denotes seeding): Singles (Semifinals): 1-Khumoyun Sultanov (Uzb) bt 7-Dev Javia (Ind) 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; 2-Bogdan Bobrov (Rus) bt 6-Nick Chappell (USA) 6-3, 6-0.

Doubles (Final): 1-Egor Agafonov/ Bogdan Bobrov (Rus) bt Nick Chappell (USA)/ Nitin Kumar Sinha (Ind) 7-5, 6-2.