Omani star Fatma al Nabhani's hunt for the first title of the year continues as she narrowly fell short of claiming it twice in a span of two days at the US$15,000 ITF Pro Circuit tennis tournament in Cairo, Egypt on Sunday.
Ranked No 440 in the world, Fatma, who was seeded fourth in the event, lost the singles final to seventh-seeded Belgium's Helene Scholsen 2-6, 5-7.
The 25 year old Omani and her Egyptian partner Sandra Samir had on Saturday lost the doubles final to the Japanese- Slovakian pair of Ayaka Okuno and Chantal Skamlova 3-6, 1-6.
Playing in her second ITF event at the same venue, Fatma and Sandra had also finished runners- up to Okuno and Skamlova in the previous tournament that concluded on January 22.
Fatma began her campaign in the singles with a swift 6-0, 6-1 win over local girl Rowan Arafat and advanced to the next round.
She then survived a scare from Italian Valeria Prosperi, before moving to the quarterfinals with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win.
Fatma was impressive in her march to the semifinals as she dispatched Russia's Anastasia Sukhtina 6-3, 6-3, before getting past Romanian Cristina Ene 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to set up a summit clash with Scholsen.
In the doubles event, Fatma and Sandra, seeded third, defeated Petia Arshinkova of Bulgaria and Bolana Marinkovic of Serbia 6-4, 7-6 in the first round.
The duo then got the better of the German pair of Karolina Kowall and Dana Kremer 6-2, 6-0 to move into the semifinals.
Fatma and Sandra upset the second-seeded Romanian team of Ene and Oana Georgeta Simon 7-5, 6-2 before losing to Okuno and Skamlova.
