It was a bad day for Mankad who later teamed up with Derepasko and lost against the pair of Syed Fazaluddin and Ashley Ford of Australia in the doubles semifinals. Fazaluddin and Ford meet the top seeded Kirtane cousins - Sandeep and Nitin - in the final.

Srinath who showed an increasing power as the tournament progressed looked in total command against Mankad today. The only interesting part of the match was the first four games went with the serve. The Indian Davis Cupper, Srinath showed his backhand power with umpteen winners which left Mankad a mere spectator.

Srinath putting the slice and forehand to good use, broke Mankad'sserve in the fifth game at love. This perhaps broke Mankad's confidence too as he often committed unforced errors. Srinath, putting an extra bit in his serve, won the sixth game with an ace. From there on Srinath never looked back. Pumping in the pace, Srinath first unsettled his opponent before going for the kill. Gaining another break in the seventh game, Srinath polished off with a forehand to clinch the eighth game and the set at 6-2.

Mankad would have made amends in the second set. Unfortunately, his opponent had more bullets in his gun than him. The 19-year-old lad from Mumbai did not have any clue to Srinath's aggressive ground strokes. The best he could do was hold his serve in the third game in the entire set going down tamely at 1-6. The duel lasted less than an hour where the Mysore lad Srinath avenged the defeat he suffered at the hands of Mankad way back in 1996.

Results (all semifinals)

Singles: 2-Artem Derepasko (Rus) bt (S-4) Vinod Sridhar (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; (S-1) Prahlad Srinath(Ind) bt Harsh Mankad (Ind) 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles: Syed Fazaluddin (Ind)/Ashley Ford (Aus) bt Harsh Mankad (Ind)/Artem Derepasko (Rus) 6-1, 7-6 (8-6).

Sewa, Priyanka claim titles

CALCUTTA: Second seed Vinod Kumar Sewa came back from behind to prevail over top seed Harshit Sharma and claim the boys under-16 title in the Junior Tennis circuit meet at the DKS complex here today.

Sewa struggled in the first set and committed a number of unforced errors but fought back brilliantly to turn the table on his rival with a 0-6, 6-1, 6-0 verdict.

In the girls under-16 category, top seed Priyanka Parekh kept her reputation intact by demolishing second seed Jharna Nansi with a facile 6-1, 6-0 triumph to clinch the title.

Priyanka and Jhansi also clashed in the final of the girls under-14 section. Priyanka displayed an attacking brand of tennis to brush aside her opponent with a 6-3, 6-3 scoreline and notch up her second title in the championship.

Third seed Anshuman Dutta defeated second seedSamrat Ghosh 6-4, 6-1 to take the honour in the boys under-14 section.

Chatwinder wins tourney

CHANDIGARH: Chatwinder Singh, who represented India in the NTT World Youth Cup in Jakarta recently, upset top seed Amanjot Singh to lift boy's Under-16 North Zone Adidas Junior Tennis Championship.

Chatwinder, after winning the first set, strayed a bit in the second but came back strongly in the third to complete a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 win.

The boy's under-14 title was won by second seed Wrik Ganguly of West Bengal when he beat Tushar Liberhan, the fourth seed 7-5 7-6 (9/7).

In the girl's under-16 category, second seed Ankita Bhambri of Delhi edged past Rani Smita Jain of Rajasthan 7-6 (7/5) 6-2.

Top seed Sania Mirza of Andhra Pradesh bagged the girl's Under-14 title beating Sanaa Bhambri of Delhi 6-3 7-5.