Prakash Amritraj's winning streak continued in the third leg of the ITF men's Satellite tournament as he stormed into the final with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Vijay Kannan on Friday.
The top seed, who had easily beaten Kannan in last week's final at Chandigarh, again proved too good for the third seed as he sewed up the semi-final in just over an hour at the DLTA Courts in Delhi.
"I think after close to three weeks on the circuit we both know each other's game very well," said Amritraj, who will face Indonesian Prima Simpatiaji in the final on Saturday.
Simpatiaji had a clear passage to the final after second seed Daniel Kiernan of Great Britain pulled out of the other semi-final due to illness.
The circuit has been thoroughly dominated by Amritraj so much so that it is becoming far too predictable. He is yet to drop a set this week, although his opponents in the first and second rounds retired hurt midway through their matches.
The biggest credit to Amritraj is that his consistent success with serve and volleying has forced his opponents to move away from their natural baseline game. By making them play something that is not their original style, he has not only won matches but also did his bit to revive a dying art.
Amritraj was modest about his successful outings.
"I don't think about the opponent's game but only about mine," he said.
"I try to do both [serve and volley, and the baseline hitting]. I think you have to do both now if you want to be successful," Amritraj said.
"Lot of players have entered the top 10 without being good at serve and volley but they are fast realising that you have to be good at both.
"(Andy) Roddick is number five but he is a pure baseline player. But now he has started doing well on grass and he won the Queen's," he said.
The importance of 'mixing it up' was accentuated by Kannan who seemed at a total loss today. The lad from Chennai loves to take the pace of his opponent's strokes but lacks the brute power. As it were, he found it difficult to pass Amritraj who clinically dissected him.
And whenever he tried to come up to the net, Amritraj passed him with ease.
Amritraj broke Kannan in the very first game and then stretched the lead to 4-1 in quick time. After Kannan held serve in the seventh game, the former gained another break of serve to wrap up the set.
Amritraj opened the second set with a commanding backhand winner. Although Kannan managed to cling on to his service game, it was only a matter of time before the top seed gained a break.
And he did it with class in the third game when he produced a perfect right hand pass and followed it up with a touch lob.
There was another break for Amritraj in the fifth game and when Kannan double faulted on match point it was only in keeping with the day's proceedings.
