Prakash, Rastogi in Futures tennis final

Chandigarh, June 1 (UNI) Top seeded and highest ranked (398th) Karan Rastogi will meet unseeded and 817th ranked Prakash Amritraj in the final of the ,000 SAIL ITF Men's Futures Tennis Tournament tomorrow at the centre court of the CLTA Stadium in Sector 10 here.

The semi-finals played today turned out to be one-sided affairs.

Rastogi snuffed out the challenge of fourth seeded and 739th ranked Vijay Kannan in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 at court number 3. The match ended in just 64 minutes.

At the Centre Court, Prakash, with booming and kicking serve, outplayed Vishal Punna, ranked 982nd, in straight games 6-2, 6-1 in 57 minutes.

Prakash made his intentions clear from the word go as he broke Punna in the first game of the first set and held his serve to race to a 2-0 lead. With Punna winning the third game on his serve at love, it gave impression that he may put up a tough resistance.

However, Prakash had other ideas. After suffering break in the fifth game, Punna broke back in the sixth game to win his second game of the second set.

Hitting powerfully on both sidelines and also rushing to the net for volley, Prakash broke Punna again in the seventh game and led 5-2. With his serve to follow, Prakash held it after facing a break point as he trailed 30-40. He held his serve after deuce was called to win the game and set. Keeping his pressure, he broke Punna in the first and third sets and raced to a comfortable 4-0 lead.

The sixth game saw a long rally before Prakash won at love.

Punna was again broken in the seventh game and Prakash won the game, set and the match.

Punna served three aces and Prakash two. Prakash also committed two double faults, one in the sixth game and second in the eight game of the first set.

Rastogi advanced into the final in a majestic style. He jumped to a 3-1 lead before Kannan opened his account. Kannan was broken in the second and eight games as Rastogi won the set at 6-2.

After 2-all in the second set, Rastogi won the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth games in a row to emerge winner at 6-2.

UNI