Sydney, Jan 11 (IANS): Argentina's Diego Schwartzman, seeded third, was defeated by eighth-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-6 (3), 6-4 in a semi-final of the Sydney International tournament on Friday.
Schwartzman broke Seppi early in the first set of Friday's match but the veteran fought back to take a 1-0 lead, reports Efe news.
The Argentinian again managed to break the Italian in the second set but was broken back in what ended up being the last game of the match.
Seppi in the final will meet the winner of the other semi-final between Australia's Alex De Minaur and France's Gilles Simon.
Schwartzman, who had defeated Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka in the earlier rounds, will now head to the first slam of the season, the Australian Open, where he will meet a qualifier in his opening match.