Nairobi, Dec 3 (IANS) Kenya's last man standing at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament was bundled out of the competition currently underway here to dash the host country's hope of placing a player in the finals.
Sheil Kotecha lost to (1-6) (7-3) (1-6) to George Loffhagen of Britain in the first semi-final on Friday, setting the stage for the Briton to battle it out for top honors with Lorenzo Rottoli of Italy who beat Kai Maxted of Britain (6-0) (6-2) in the second last four clash, reports Xinhua.
Kotecha's coach, George Oyoo, said his charge suffered immense fatigue after giving his whole during the tournament in his quest to bag his first international decoration.
"Kotecha was not at his mental best. He won the second set but made mistakes which saw him lose the next set," Oyoo remarked.
"His opponent played deep balls which allowed Kotecha to come in and score easily instead of trying to step in more," the coach added.
Ella Ayomo of Gabon won the first semi-final in the women's category, beating Lara Van Der Merwe in straight sets. She will meet the winner of the semi-final between D. Achong of Netherlands and Valeriya Rozenkova of Ukraine in the final.
--IANS
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