New Delhi, June 19: Playing excellent serve and volley game, top seed Prakash Amritraj demolished national hard courts champion Vinod Sridhar with a 7-5 6-2 victory in the quarterfinals of the ITF men's satellite tennis circuit third leg at the DLTA complex today. In this graphite age when the game is all about hitting the ball with power and precision, Amritraj's game came as a welcome relief. Last time he played on these courts in a challenger event two months ago, Amritraj was a bit unconvincing, making frequent errors at the net. He gave the impression of carrying the cross of being a legend's son. This week though he had served strong and backed it with good sense of timing in approach to the net.
Sridhar, the sixth seed, could do nothing but bow to a superior opponent.

"He was serving and volleying very well today. I tried to come up to the net a little more so as to keep him at the back but that did not work", he said.

To Sridhar's credit, he got his first serve going and the match was in balance till 5-5 in the first set. The tenth game saw Amritraj, serving to stay in the set, hold nerve and serve after being dueced. A strong serve followed by a tight volley got him out of the quirky situation.

Bureau Report