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Friday, Apr 01, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Prakash in last four

By Kalyan Ashok

BANGALORE, MARCH 31. The crowds were back at the KSLTA Stadium, thanks to Prakash Amritraj's electrifying presence. And the 21-year-old did not let the fans down as he stormed into the semifinals of the $15,000 ITF men's Futures championship. Prakash beat Dutchman Jasper Smit 6-3, 6-4 in 67 minutes.

It was a tough contest for the seventh-seeded Prakash. But the Davis Cupper didn't flinch before his tall and big serving rival. Prakash served well and kept varying his shots. On the other hand, Smit also committed a couple of double faults, which slackened his pace. As the tie progressed his net play too became erratic.

Prakash was under pressure in the fifth game as Smit ran him close till 40-30 after he made a double fault. And Prakash managed to save the game. But the Indian came charging in the eighth game. He had Smit in a tizzy with some well-angled low returns and the Dutchman made hash of his returns at the net. He netted thrice to drop the game. Prakash with that crucial break took the ninth game and wrap up the set at 6-3.

Smit fights back

Smit's challenge was far from over as he kept his charge to shake Prakash and the Indian almost obliged him in the fourth game. He was forced to deuce after a double fault and another double fault by Prakash gave Smit a break point. The Dutchman failed to seize that chance as he slammed a back-hand volley into the net. Prakash, back on deuce, made sure that he kept the serve as he hammered home a strong first serve and then played a down the line back-hand winner.

Prakash kept his focus and went all out for a break, which he achieved in the ninth game. Smit, playing back-hand wide, conceded a break point but pulled up his act and fired an ace to make it deuce.

Smit was simply unable to keep up the momentum at that stage and forced to go for his second serve, he slumped with two mis-hits to concede a vital break.

There was no stopping Prakash as he served for the match and he closed the tie with an ace as his rival dropped the racket, signalling his surrender.

"Guys like Smit are unpredictable. It was a question of focussing harder and not giving away easy points and making most of chances that came my way," said Prakash.

In another quarterfinal tie, Croatian Ivan Cerovic overwhelmed Kamil Capkovic of Slovakia 6-1, 6-3 in 63 minutes.

In the semifinals, Prakash Amritraj takes on the German Simon Greul. The third seeded Simon Greul beat the eighth seed Rainer Etziner of Austria 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-4.

The results (Indians unless specified): Singles (quarterfinals): Prakash Amritraj bt Jasper Smit (Ned) 6-3, 6-4; Ivan Cerovic (Cro) bt Kamil Capkovic (Svk) 6-1,6-3; Simon Greul (Ger) bt Rainer Eitzinger (Aut) 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-4; Aisam Qureshi (Pak) bt Denis Istomin (Uzb) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

Doubles: Semifinals: Harsh Mankad & Sunil Kumar Sipaeya bt. Simon Greul & Peter Mayer Tischer (Ger) 7-5. conceded. (quarterfinals): Harsh Mankad/Sunil Kumar Sipaeya bt Simon Greul/PeterMayer Tischer (Ger) 6-4, 6-2; Karan Rastogi/Ashutosh Singh bt Nick Monroe (US)/Sebastian Fitz (Ger) 6-1, 6-0; Fred Hemms/Jasper Smit (Ned) bt Karan Rastogi/Ashutosh Singh 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

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