Tennis: Kirtane, Sridhar in title round

Top seed Nitten Kirtane of Maharashtra and No.2 Vinod Sridhar of Tamil Nadu entered the singles final of the CRS Trust-AITA prize money tennis tournament for men here on Thursday.

In the lop-sided semi-finals, the two veterans toyed with their younger rivals and registered identical victories. The southpaw Kirtane, who chased down every return and hit fluent winners on both flanks, outplayed Tamil Nadu's Akhil Kanakaraj 6-2, 6-0, while Sridhar drubbed R. Ribhav of Karnataka 6-2, 6-0.

Sridhar and Kirtane are also in line for a double crown as they teamed up to win the men's doubles title and split the prize money of Rs.6,300. They defeated the Kerala duo of Timonthy Reynold and Krishna Kumar 6-3, 6-4 in the final.