By Anand Philar, IANS
Chennai : World No.2 and top seed Rafael Nadal survived a scare before coming through 7-6 (3), 6-7 (8), 7-6 (1) against sentimental favourite Carlos Moya in an all-Spanish semi-final of the $436,000 ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament here Saturday night.
Nadal meets fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia who earlier outclassed young pretender Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3.
It was a virtual battle of titans as the two Spaniards, Nadal and Moya, went for each other in a no-holds barred contest that lasted over three hours. They traded heavy, topspin shots and power-packed groundstrokes in an entertaining contest that had the capacity 6,000-crowd on its feet.
Shot for shot, there was little to choose between the two with Nadal, 21, banking on his amazing mobility and Moya, 31, leaning heavily on his experience.
But, at the end of nearly four hours, Nadal’s youth had the final say in the match as Moya faded away in the third set tie-break just when he needed to be at the top of his game.
Initially, Moya was on the defensive and just about managed to hold serve through the first set that went into tie-break.
The first set witnessed breathtaking rallies as Nadal looked the sharper of the two, drilling shots to the corners, pulling his opponent from side to side. On his part, Moya rolled back the years with some delicate netplay that won him a bagful of points.
Perhaps, Nadal could have avoided the tie-break had he converted the two breakpoints in the 10th game. But Moya survived aided by two brilliant winners to hold serve.
Moya was at his best in the tie-break with a series of winners and built nicely on an early mini-break to take the first set.
At the start of the second set, Moya went on the offensive, but Nadal was unfazed and continued to pound winners with trademark inside-out shots that often wrong-footed his rival.
In the fifth game, Nadal broke Moya with outright winners to the forehand corner after two deuces and looked well on way to win the set.
However, Moya dug deep into his vast reserves to break back in the 10th game. The tie-break was inevitable as the two held nerve through the next two games to make it 6-6. Moya had four match points, leading 6-3 and then 7-6, but Nadal clawed his way back to clinch the tie-break at 10-8.
The decisive moment in the match came in the fifth game of the third set when Moya broke Nadal with a forehand winner to go 3-2 up. Nadal had his chance to catch up in the eighth game, but blew several breakpoints as Moya went ahead 5-3 after six deuces.
Nadal, however, surged back with a break in the dramatic 10th game to level at 5-5 and then held serve for 6-5 advantage. Moya then made it 6-6 to force the third tie-break of the match, but Nadal’s younger legs made the difference as Moya had very little left in the tank.
In contrast, 25-year-old Youzhny’s win was to be expected. He came through with surprising ease against the 71st ranked Cilic, 19, who went down rather tamely, dropping his serve twice in each set.
Both players appeared jaded, having completed their respective quarterfinal matches in the early hours of Saturday following rain delay.
Cilic looked a different player from the one who beat fifth seed Nicolas Mahut and giant-killer Robin Haase in the previous two rounds. He struggled with his serve and rhythm besides committing a huge number of unforced errors.
In contrast, Youzhny played percentage tennis, holding back when he needed to, but giving it all on the big points. To top it, he served well and was rarely in trouble, barring once in the second game of the second set when he trailed 0-30. But four scorching winners, including an ace, pulled him through.
Cilic did not possess similar weapons, though on occasions, his potential was very evident, especially when he craftily drew Youzhny to the net only to pass him. However, these bright moments were more an exception as Youzhny played a better all-round game to win quite comfortably.
Cilic was under pressure at the very start when he dropped his first service game and again in the seventh, allowing Youzhny to race away with the first set in 32 minutes.
The pace noticeably dropped in the second set as games went to serve until 3-3 when Youzhny broke Cilic who then virtually gave up the fight. The Russian wrapped up the set with a break in the ninth game to close the match.
Youzhny was rather forgiving when he pointed out that Cilic was probably very tired after finishing his three-setter against Haase in the early hours of Saturday.
“Both of us finished our quarter-final matches at about the same time, but he played three sets, and so I guess he was more tired than I was. He also played doubles. I played a steady game and am quite happy to make it to the final,” Youzhny said.