The Hindu : Sport : Garcia-Lopez downs Tabara

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Saturday, Jan 08, 2005

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Garcia-Lopez downs Tabara

By K. Keerthivasan

LOSING IT: Michal Tabara, a former champion here, lost his cool over a line call and blew away his chances of winning his quarterfinal match. — Photo: R. Ragu

CHENNAI, JAN. 7. Michal Tabara of the Czech Republic, the champion here in 2001, let some line calls upset his concentration and lost to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and 24 minutes in the quarterfinals of the Chennai Open tennis championship at the Nungambakkam Stadium here on Friday. Garcia will take on country-mate Carlos Moya in the semifinals.

Twenty-five year-old Tabara is not a world-beater by any standards, at least he didn't give the impression on this day. Picking up the pieces after suffering a shoulder injury a couple of years ago, Tabara's performance this year has been anything but spectacular.

The way he played against the Frenchman Olivier Patience the other day suggested that the Czech would have to fine-tune his game if he has to reach higher levels.

Against the 6'3" Garcia-Lopez, Tabara played an inconsistent game from the baseline only occasionally matching the well-built Spaniard. Up 4-3 and down 15-40 on his serve, Tabara did not take easily to a line call, which he felt was right. Garcia-Lopez capitalised on it to break his opponent in the eighth and tenth games to pocket the first set. The scenario was pretty much the same in the second.

After they shook hands, the two players talked for some time, probably about those line calls. But the Czech refused to be drawn into discussing the issue. "I don't want to talk about it," he said.

An easy time

The crowd favourite and the poster boy of the kids — Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand — did not exert himself much in disposing of Kristof Vliegen of Belgium 6-3, 6-4. The second seed played economically against a lightweight such as Vliegen, who at no point of time looked good enough to pull off an upset.

Srichaphan raced to a 5-2 lead in the first set breaking the Belgian, ranked 114 in the world, with a lone break in the second game. The Thai's strategy was to conserve his energy and perhaps experiment with his game and it clicked against Vliegen who had no proper weapon to match the Thai.

Then as if from nowhere, Vliegen made a fight of it in the second set after being down 4-1. But it was too good to last as the Belgian, soon melted like his country's chocolates with Srichaphan, aiming to break into the top 10, took charge. Srichaphan will meet Tomas Zib of the Czech Republic in the semifinals. Zib outwitted the big-serving Justin Gimelstob of US 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) in a last eight clash.

"You can't play hard every time otherwise you'll lose the game. But up by a set and leading 4-1 in the second, I think Vliegen lifted his game. I came to the net more often, mixed up my game to make my opponent think every time," said Srichaphan.

The results (quarterfinals): Carlos Moya (Esp) bt Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) 6-4, 6-4; Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) bt Kristof Vliegen (Bel) 6-3, 6-4; Tomas Zib (Cze) bt Justin Gimelstob (US) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4); Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp) bt Michal Tabara (Cze) 6-4, 6-4.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Leander Paes (Ind)/Nenad Zimonjic (SCG) bt Karsten Braasch (Ger)/Robert Lindstedt (Swe) 6-2, 1-6, 6-4; Yen-Hsun Lu (Taipei)/Rainer Schuettler (Ger) bt Ashley Fisher (Aus)/Tripp Phillips (US) 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.

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