The 24-year-old, who arrived from Delhi late last night to participate in the State Bank of India ITF Men's Satellite tennis tournament that commences here on Monday, split his stay in the States into useful little bits.

He spent a month and a half with his brother Sachin, who plays for his university in Georgia, and practiced with the same team. In the meantime, Kirtane also found the time to play in a Satellite tournament and collected eight ATP doubles points partnering an Australian.

This stint was followed by a few weeks in a tennis camp called Team Scandinavia, where he coached in the mornings and practiced in the evenings.Kirtane feels the results his game has improved substantially and fitness sharpened. Weight-training hasstrengthened his shoulders and his backhand is better than before, though he admits, he still needs to work on it.

Things are looking up for the Puneite on other fronts as well as he recently joined Western Railway in January and is hoping for a place in the Davis Cup squad once again. It was his first National title in 1996 at Calcutta on grass that fetched him a place in the Davis Cup squad and now he wants it back.

``Winning the Nationals becomes significant as my chances to get back improve,'' said the cheerful two-time national champion. India play South Korea in the Asia-Oceania group after being relegated to zonal competition following their recent loss to Britain.

Kirtane feels he is playing well enough to collect valuable ATP points from the three-leg Satellite meets and the Masters that will be held at the end of it.

Cousin Sandeep, now fit and ready after an injury kept him out of the Delhi Nationals, will provide Nitin just the right sort of company. They will play doubles, but equallyimportantly, train together and help each other improve.

But the left-handed champion is, for the moment, `single-minded' in seeking success.