A hard-serving Srinath overwhelmed compatriot Harsh Mankad, the fourth seed, in the semifinals 6-1, 6-0 in 57 minutes. ``I have India's cricket match on my mind and probably that made me rush through.''

In the other encounter, Fazaluddin, who played top-seeded and Mumbai-leg winner Artem Derepasko of Russia, proceeded to the finals with the Russian conceding the match after being a set down. Fazal had taken a well fought first set in a tie-break, 7-6 (4), when Derepasko retired, citing ``severe exhaustion'' as reason.

About the final tomorrow, Srinath, who lost to Fazaluddin in the Mumbai-leg semi-final, said, ``I am just going to fight it out.''

In the doubles, unseeded American pair of Jay Udwadia and Minh Le upset second seed Ashley Ford (Australia) and Syed Fazaluddin 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the semifinals. They now meetPrahlad Srinath and Vasudeva Reddy in the final tomorrow. Srinath and Reddy defeated Ravi Kiran Bhat and Rohan Boppana 7-6 (5), 6-1 in the semis.

Sheetal triumphs

BANGALORE: Sheetal Goutham of Karnataka made it a grand double, winning singles and doubles titles at the AITA State Ranking Open women's tennis championship.

Third seed Sheetal beat Radhika Tulpule of Maharashtra 6-7 (3-7), 6-0, 6-3 in just over two hours. Later, Sheetal pairing with Radhika, defeated Tara Kanbargimath and Karishma Patel when the latter conceded the match at 6-1, 4-1.