Srinath, Bopanna to clash in final

Former Davis Cupper and seventh seed Prahlad Srinath and unseeded Rohan Bopanna will clash in the men's singles final in the $10,000 prize-money ITF-Futures tennis tournament in Bombay on Saturday.

In the semi-finals on Friday, Srinath rallied magnificiently, after dropping the first set 4-6, to shock top seed Eyal Erlich of Israel 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in 2 hours 5 minutes while his Karnataka mate Bopanna needed two tie-breaks to pip wild card Ajay Ramaswamy 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6) in 1 hr 35 mins.

It was indeed a fine fightback by Srinath. After games went with serves, the lanky Indian dropped his serve in the ninth game to lose the first set 4-6.

He came back strongly, breaking his rival in the second game of the second set and then held to lead 3-0. With the Israeli failing to break Srinath's serve which improved by leaps and bounds as the match progressed, the Indian won the set 6-3.

The deciding set saw fortunes fluctuate. The Indian dropped his serve in the fourth game to trail 1-3 but bounced back immediately when he broke his rival in the fifth, to narrow the margin to 2-3 and then held his own for a 3-all score.

With both players fighting every inch, Srinath managed to break his opponent in the seventh game with some blistering fore hand returns to take a 4-3 lead.

The Indian, who was totally dominating at this stage of the match, held his serve pretty easily for a 5-3 lead and then broke his rival in the ninth game to win at 6-3.

In the Ramaswamy-Bopanna match, the former's service let him down badly unlike Thursday's quarter-final win over former national champion Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, where his service played an important role.

On Friday, he committed as many as six doubles-faults when he was up a break in the second set, which ultimately cost him the match.

In the first set, games went with serve, forcing the tie-break. Ramaswamy led 4-2 in the tie-break but let that lead slip with some unimaginative shots, and Bopanna, who served really fast, took full advantage of it to take the tie-break 7-5.

In the second set, Ramaswamy broke Bopanna in the fifth game and then held his own serve to go 4-2 up. However, he started serving poorly to drop his own serve in the tenth game to neutralise the advantage at 5-all.

In the tie-break, Ramaswamy took a small lead initially but squandered it to lose 8-6.

This is the first time that two Indians are in the final in a Futures tournament.

Results (men's singles) semi-finals: Prahlad Srinath (Ind bt Eyal Erlich (Isr) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, Rohan Bopanna (Ind) bt Ajay Ramaswamy (Ind) 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6).

Doubles (semi-final): Prahlad Srinath/Ajay Ramaswamy (Ind) bt Nitin Kirtane/Sandeep Kirtane (Ind) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.