Ashutosh with his serve and volley game kept the Japanese on his toes, allowing him just a game in the fist set.

He continued in the same vein in the second set breaking Takeuchi early in the first game but was broken back in the fourth. The two exchanged breaks in the following two games before the Japanese held. The Indian had a break point opportunity in the ninth game but failed to convert it and instead got broken in the tenth, netting a backhand return, to make it a set apiece.

The dispirited Indian then lapsed into errors to slump 0-3 in the decider and all the Japanese needed to do was to keep the ball in play. He soon served out the set and the match on his fourth match point after a struggle of over two hours.