Sunday, Jan 11, 2004
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Tennis
By K. Keerthivasan
Two men made the singles final of the Tata Open in Chennai on Saturday. This man was not one of them. But Tommy Robredo of Spain who took defending champion Paradorn Srichaphan all the way to the wire won thousands of hearts. — Photo: Vino John
CHENNAI, JAN. 10. The `Tiger' showed his worth in a nail-biting semifinal contest of the Tata Open tennis championship at the Nungambakkam Stadium here on Saturday. Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan, the defending champion and second seed, survived six matchpoints to beat the valiant Spaniard Tommy Robredo, the fourth seed, 1-6, 7-6 (12-10), 7-5 to storm into the title round for the third successive time. Srichaphan was almost out of the tournament today. Down a set and 4-6 in the second set tie-breaker, he turned things rather dramatically. Against a good retriever, Srichaphan had to pull out all the tricks in his bag to fashion a thrilling victory in two hours and 13 minutes. In the other semifinal, top seed Carlos Moya of Spain dismantled Dutchman Sjeng Schalken 6-3, 6-4 in one hour. After breaking Schalken in the sixth game, Moya had no problems in closing out the first set. Schalken could not withstand the aggression of the Spaniard, a former French Open champion, who fired 15 aces. Moya broke the Dutchman in the ninth game of the second set when the latter's backhand sailed long. He then served out the match comfortably to set up an intriguing final with Srichaphan. Twenty-one-year-old Robredo was moving well and was bang on target from the first game unlike Srichaphan who found it difficult to get into a rhythm. Once the Spaniard outslugged the Thai from the baseline and broke him in the second and fourth games to go up 4-0, the first set belonged to him. After being completely outplayed, Srichaphan did better in the second. Robredo, a fighter in the Michael Chang mould, ran down every ball to put more pressure on the Thai. Soon Robredo had two matchpoints at 6-4 in the second set tie-breaker. The top Asian, however, rose to the occasion. He first levelled the scores by venturing to the net and finishing the point with a superb drop volley. At 8-7, Robredo had his third matchpoint but his forehand passing shot missed the line by a whisker. The fourth matchpoint too went abegging for the Spaniard. Amidst mounting pressure, it was Srichaphan who clinched the second set 12-10 with a good return on his third setpoint. Everyone, except the pom-pom girls who were doing their job to entertain, looked unhappy and surprised by Srichaphan's uncharacteristic errors. With the thrilling second set tie-breaker behind him, Srichaphan began to assert his class even as Robredo produced some fantastic approach volleys to keep the Thai at bay. The Spaniard, who matched Srichaphan from the backcourt throughout, had two more matchpoints on the latter's serve in the 10th game of the decider. The Thai, however, managed to save both. Two good returns of serve and a Robredo forehand which went long gave Srichaphan the much-needed break in the 11th game and he went up 6-5. And when a return went wide in the 12th game, Paradorn `Tiger' Srichaphan went around the court to say a traditional Namaste to the crowd, which had been rooting for him all along. "It was a good match. The crowd wanted me to fight," said Srichaphan. "I think we both played a great match. I am very happy with the way I played. All I can say is I did my best. The difference was that he played the big points better than me," said Robredo. The results: Singles (semifinals): Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) bt Tommy Robredo (Esp) 1-6, 7-6 (12-10), 7-5; Carlos Moya (Esp) bt Sjeng Schalken (Ned) 6-3, 6-4.
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