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Journalism of Courage
Carlos Moya, after his semi-final victory, had asked the crowd: 8216;8216;I guess you will cheer Paradorn Srichaphan in the final?8217;8217;
On Sunday, Moya gave the 6000-odd spectators at the SDAT Tennis Stadium reason enough to change their priorities with a comeback 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 7-5 win.
If Srichaphan was the favourite it8217;s because the ATP Chennai Open 2004 was his fourth includes a title, he8217;s Asian and does the extremely popular namaste. Moya, however, had just one big weapon with which he won the Chennai crowd8217;s heart: class. Sheer class.
In an epic final, Moya became the first person to defend his crown. The game also joined the list of longest finals in terms of games after Mikael Tilstrom and Alex Radulescu 1997 and Moya-Srichaphan 2003 had slugged out 32 games each.
No 2 Srichaphan began with a bang over Moya and the first set was decided almost entirely on power. Srichaphan had more of it. Moya didn8217;t.
It was from the second set, more exactly from when Srichaphan had gone up 2-0, that Moya started easing his way into the match. The Spaniard made it 2-2 first, then moved to 3-3.
And then, Moya played the shot of the tournament in the seventh game, which, in hindsight, might have been the first blow to Srichaphan8217;s confidence. Stranded at the net, Moya found a Srichaphan lob sailing over his head to the backhand corner. Where most others would have given up, Moya chased the ball down, reached it, saw the Thai coming to the net, stretched to a double-fisted backhand, sent a lob back over the onrushing Srichaphan8217;s head. On the back-pedal, Srichaphan smashed wide.
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Bhupathi-Bjorkman stunned
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8226; The unseeded pair of Yen Lu and Rainer Schuettler upset top seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Jonas Bjorkman to claims the doubles crown. The underdogs recorded a thrilling 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 victory in the final. This meant another disappointment for the local crowd who had witnessed Leander Paes and his Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic bowing out in the semi-final yesterday. Story continues below this ad |
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In the third, Srichaphan ran up a 2-5 advantage. When the match seemed over, Moya used his top-spin backhands to good effect. He reached five-all, and with a tired Srichaphan seeing his advantage gone, pushed the game into a tie-breaker and went for the kill.
8216;8216;I only hoped,8217;8217; Moya said afterwards, adding that he changed his strategy by relaxing rather that go for the shots. Promising to return next year, Moya said: 8216;8216;I make it a point to try and defend my titles. The crowd was great here and I guess they just want more action.8217;8217;
Next stop: Sydney. And Moya, who picked up his 18th ATP title, explained that 8216;8216;there8217;s just no time to celebrate8217;8217;.
