The Hindu : Sport : Carlos Moya struggles to enter final

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Sunday, Jan 09, 2005

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Sport

Carlos Moya struggles to enter final

By K. Keerthivasan

Carlos Moya, who overcame Guillermo Garcia Lopez to enter the Chennai Open final. - Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI, JAN. 8. Carlos Moya is an elder statesman in a country, which is witnessing a paradigm shift in terms of number of players slowly moving up in the ATP rankings.

Almost all players in Spain consider Moya as a guiding force and the Spaniard has been an inspiration to them.

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain is one among them. But in the semifinals of the Chennai Open tennis championship at the Nungambakkam Stadium here on Saturday, the 22-year-old showed he is more than just a sparring partner to the defending champion.

Garcia-Lopez showed nerves of steel. Moya had to bring forth all his experience to beat an inspired Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-2) and book a place in the final against Paradorn Srichaphan. It would be a repeat match of the last year.

Early jitters

In the three rounds which the top-seed has played so far, he has given his fans as much pain as pleasure.

If his first round match against Austrian Julian Knowle could be termed as early jitters, the quarterfinal against Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, was quite close (though the scoreline did not suggest so).

Garcia showed he is not scared of Moya's reputation as he matched the defending champion from the baseline. His backhand-down-the line winners and impressive back-court play didn't go unnoticed.

The man from Albacete, a place known for Saffron production and old monuments, proved that he is not a man to be ignored. Moya played pretty ordinary for quite some time, but came up with fantastic winners from the baseline at crucial junctures.

Especially the ninth game when he broke Garcia-Lopez's game at 5-3.

To a fine drop volley from Garcia-Lopez, the former French Open champion ran down like a hare to place it wide off his compatriot; a fantastic winner it was. Capitalising on that crucial break, Moya did what he does customarily; hold his serve and capping it with an ace.

Garcia refused to bow down. His hard-as-nail approach and his domination from the back-court took even Moya by surprise. Winners flowed from Garcia-Lopez's racquet.

The 22-year-old, whose best performance in the Grand Slams, has been second round appearance this year in French Open, showed his class in the second set. Playing confidently, the 128-ranked Spaniard, broke Moya in the second game to take a 2-0 lead and then simply ran away with the second.

Consistency

In only his second semifinal in four years on the pro-tour, Garcia-Lopez showed amazing consistency. Moya soon realised that Garcia-Lopez was not the one to give up very easily.

During such close contests, sometimes experience helps you find the way. Having them in plenty, the 28-year-old found the answers as he took a 4-2 lead. Hitting the lines consistently, Garcia-Lopez held on to 6-5 lead. And in the ensuing tie-breaker, Moya took a commanding 5-2 lead and once a Garcia-Lopez's forehand dipped into the net, it signalled the end of an ordeal for Moya.

Bjorkman-Bhupathi in final

On Friday night, the top-seeded pair of Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) and Mahesh Bhupathi (India) reached the doubles final of the Chennai Open championship today defeating America's Kevin Kim and Jiri Vanek (Czech Repubic) 6-2, 6-3.

Up a set, the Indo-Swede pair found itself in trouble trailing 1-3 in the second. But it fought back wonderfully well to equalise 3-3. Breaking Vanek's serve in the eighth game, the duo of Bjorkman and Bhupathi took a 5-3 lead. Then the top-seed pair closed out the suspense-filled ninth game on Bhupathi's serve on their third match point.

The results:

Singles (semifinals): Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) bt Tomas Zib (Cze) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3; Carlos Moya (Esp) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp) 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-2).

Doubles (semifinals): Jonas Bjorkman (Swe)/Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) bt Kevin Kim (US) / Jiri Vanek (Czech) 6-2, 6-3.

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