Amritraj beats Wang Yu

Prakash Amritraj played near flawless tennis to thrash Wang Yu in straight sets and give India a commanding 2-0 lead in the Daivs Cup Asia Oceania Group I tie in Delhi on Saturday.

Playing for the first time at home, Prakash displayed a perfect serve and volley game on grass to beat the left-handed Chinese 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the second singles match, which had to be completed today after the officials called off play on Friday due to rain.

This was also Prakash's maiden Daivs Cup victory in five appearances. He lost his two singles matches against the Netherlands in the World Group play-off in 2003 and also went down in both the matches against Japan last year.

Resuming at 6-3, 2-3 this morning, Prakash came out with a purpose and dominated the proceedings for most part of the one hour 50-minute encounter.

The only time Yu looked like coming back into the match was between the third and fifth game of the third set but the 22-year-old Indian, son of the legendary Vijay Amritraj, raised his game in time to wrap up the rubber.

Prakash today bagged the first three games of the day to race to a 5-3 lead in the second set.

Yu tried to stay in the set by saving three break points in the ninth game but Prakash, who did not drop a single point in his first two service games, closed the set at 6-4.

In the third set, Yu began on a promising note and though he lost his serve in the third game he got the break back in the very next with a couple of down the line winners to restore parity at 2-2.

But that was all the Chinese could do as Prakash won the next four games in a row breaking Yu in the fifth and seventh game to put India in the driver's seat.

In the first singles on Friday, Harsh Mankad had packed off top Chinese player Sun Peng 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 to give India a 1-0 lead.