The Hindu : Sport : Moya sails past Serra

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Saturday, Jan 05, 2008
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Sport

Moya sails past Serra

Nandita Sridhar

Rains disrupts Nadal and Garcia-Lopez match

— Photo: M. Vedhan

ON SONG: Carlos Moya trounced Florent Serra in the Chennai Open quarterfinals on Friday.

Chennai: On-court, Carlos Moya looks impassive and betrays just the occasional hint of annoyance. His slow strides between points and his head bent in contemplation are carelessly dismissed as signs of ageing; but the Spaniard has been no different since his first visit to the city in 1999.

Many things in him have changed over the years, but his body language hasn’t. The trademark strides preceded some of his best tennis in the tournament which saw him beat Frenchman Florent Serra in the quarterfinals of the Chennai Open on Friday.

The Spaniard unearthed a cross-court ripper in response to most of what Serra offered. Serra possessed compact strokes, but what he needed was firepower. Moya was too quick, and his forehand had too much spin on it.

Embarrassing

More than anything else, the Frenchman’s handling of the top-spinning forehand was embarrassing. He displayed tactical soundness when forcing Moya into a weak slice after a relentless attack on his backhand; but the Frenchman found it hard to pull it off consistently.

Moya’s first serves were a source of bother, but he managed to fish out a winner to negate their weaknesses. The first set panned out in expected fashion. The 31-year-old Moya managed a break in the fourth game, after which close games marked the business end of the set.

Serra tried what he could in the second. He pushed the third seed to the edge of the court, and managed the odd approach shot when it mattered; but he faltered in his finishing. Moya was too strong from the baseline, and had the experience to deal with the World No. 92.

Moya looked more in control of the rallies. The Spaniard warmed up with Rafael Nadal prior to his quarterfinal. The match began on time despite incessant casting doubts over its scheduled beginning.

The second semifinal of the day, featuring top-seed Rafael Nadal and his compatriot Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, was suspended due to rain. Garcia-Lopez was serving at 40-15, with the score at 2-1 in Nadal’s favour, when rain disrupted the day’s schedule.

The results: Singles: Quarterfinals: Carlos Moya (Esp) bt Florent Serra (Fra) 6-3, 6-4. Second round: Robin Haase (Ned) bt Lovro Zovko (Cro) 6-1, 7-5. Doubles: Second round: Harel Levy (Isr) & Rajeev Ram (US) bt Igor Kunitsyn (Rus) & Jim Thomas (US) 3-6, 6-3, 10-6.