KANNUR, NOV 6: The flashes of brilliance that stamped Vijay Kannan's giant-killing spree in the tournament, were yet again on display today. But, in the end, they were just not enough.Prahlad Srinath, the No 2 seed, ended the dream run of his young rival with a string of forehand winners in the tie-breaker to win the thriller 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) on his path to the final of the Satellite Masters International tennis tournament at the Jawahar Stadium today.In tomorrow's final, Srinath will meet Swede Federico Rovai. Rovai got a walkover when his compatriot and fourth seeded Johan Hede pulled out from the tournament as he aggravated his knee injury in the quarterfinals yesterday.``For the past couple of years, I have been playing more on the hard courts, mainly in Germany where I play club tennis and it was too difficult for me to adjust to the court conditions here. This was one of the reasons why I lost the first set,'' said Srinath, relief showing on his face after the one hour, 56-minuteencounter.``But the second set was a morale booster, and I did not have to look back from then on. My serve too started picking up,'' added the winner of Mumbai leg, who fired 10 aces in the match.Kannan, who cracked his more fancied rival in the fourth game of the first set, beating Srinath with a crosscourt volley executed well with his backhand, failed to cover the ground in the last two sets. The Chennai-based teenager dropped his serve twice in the second set.
