Top seed Prakash Amritraj put himself in line for a hat-trick of titles when he outplayed Sunil Kumar Sipaeya in the semi-finals of the Sail-ITF Masters Satellite tournament in Delhi on Thursday.
The US-based lad's 6-3, 6-3 victory set up a title clash with Indonesia's Febi Widhyanto.
In the second semi-final, Widhyanto rallied to beat Yew Ming Si of Malaysia 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in a tightly-contested match that lasted over two hours.
Amritraj, who had annexed the second and third legs of the ITF series in Chandigarh and Delhi, was in his element, hitting big first serves and cross-court winners at will, as he saw off the challenge from the Chandigarh southpaw in the first semi-final in an hour and 15 minutes.
Serving first, Amritraj took the first game with ease, losing just one point and hitting an ace, which set the trend for the rest of the match.
Sipaeya made a heavy weather of his serve, committing a double-fault and was stretched to deuce, but finally managed to level at 1-1.
Amritraj took the next game easily. He then attacked Sipaeya's first serve in the fourth game and forced him to commit errors, which resulted in a break for a 3-1 lead. He easily held in the next game and went up 4-1.
After holding in the sixth game, Sipaeya put up some resistance in the next, during which he had his chances as he earned two break-points. But a strong nerve and efficient play saw Amritraj take the game and lead 5-2.
Sipaeya managed to win the next game but could not prevent Amritraj from holding in the ninth and taking the set 6-3.
In the second set, Sipaeya looked a little more focussed as both players held serve till the sixth game. But just when it seemed as if the set would go to the tie-breaker, Amritraj broke in the seventh game to take the all-crucial 4-3 lead. He consolidated by holding serve for a 5-3 lead and then breaking Sipaeya in the ninth game to take the game, set and match.
In the second semi-final, sixth seed Widhyanto staged a remarkable comeback after being a set down.
UNI