Srinath too good for Bopanna

Seventh seed Prahlad Srinath proved too good for unseeded Rohan Bopanna in the men's singles final in the ITF-Futures tennis tournament in Bombay on Saturday.

The former India Davis Cupper took one hour and 10 minutes to eke out a 6-3, 6-4 victory and claim a grand double.

On Friday, Srinath won the doubles title partnering Ajay Ramaswamy.

The triumph made the Karnataka lad richer by $1,300 (Rs 54,600) and 12 ATP points. Bopanna had to rest content with $900 (Rs 28,800) and eight ATP points.

The duel between the two baseliners turned out to be very interesting, with a fitter and faster Srinath coming out trumps in the end.

Bopanna's poor service let him down. With a break in the sixth game, Srinath took a 4-2 lead in the first set and served out the set at 6-3.

In the second set, Bopanna served three double-faults in the first game to drop serve, but managed a break back in the fourth game to make the score 2-all.

However, Bopanna's joy was shortlived, as his Karnataka mate broke back in the crucial seventh game to take a 4-3 lead. He then held serve to make it 5-3. Though Bopanna held serve in the next game, he was unable to stop Srinath from serving out the match at 6-4.

Srinath served as many as three aces in the match but did not serve even a single double-fault. Bopanna on the other hand served three aces and five double-faults.