Karan Rastogi's hopes of rounding his Davis Cup preparations on a high note was dented as he suffered a shock loss to Todor Enev of Bulgaria in the USD 15,000 Oil India ITF Futures men's tennis in New Delhi.
Third seed Rastogi, who will spearhead the campaign in India's away tie against Uzbekistan next week, went down to Enev, ranked nearly 200 places before him, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the semifinals at DLTA Complex.
In the final on Saturday, Enev will be up against Alexander Kudryavtsev.
The Russian knocked out fifth seed Hyun-Woo Nam of Korea 6-0, 6-4.
Kudryavtsev had another reason to celebrate in the day as he won the doubles title with Alexei Kedriouk of Kazakhstan.
The two K's defeat the Indian pair of Sandeep Kirtane and Purav Raja 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the summit clash.
More from rediff