Former world number one Carlos Moya of Spain started the ATP season in style, dethroning defending champion Paradorn Srichaphan in a closely fought duel for supremacy in the TATA Open tennis championship at Chennai on Sunday.
Playing before a packed stadium, Moya beat the Thai star 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 (5) in a match that lasted 114 minutes.
Moya, the 1998 French Open champion, thus became the fourth top seeded player to claim the title. This was Moya's 15th Tour title and his second win over Paradorn. The Thai had lost to Moya in a tour match in Miami last year.
With the rivals playing to their potential and not willing to yield much, the match went to the wire and Moya was able to win the last two points, particularly the match point on Paradorn's serve, as the latter sent the ball wide and long.
Moya summed up his match as one of the best finals he had played in and gave credit to Paradorn for his recovery in the second set.
"Paradorn is a champion and took the match to the wire today. It was a situation where one of us had to win and I was able to do it to start the season on a good note," Moya said.
Paradorn returned Moya's compliments and said "I hope Moya and I will be able to keep up this momentum throughout the year".
Right from the outset, Paradorn matched his higher rated rival for points even though he was not able to get in his first serves.
The players had to earn their points the hard way until 4-4. However, Moya tried quite often to out-beat the Thai star, supported by a large crowd that had turned out for the final.
Paradorn, who received the first game from Moya, started off with an ace and repeated the compliment of winning the game at 40-0. The manner in which the players went about their task in a power-packed serve and volley game, it looked that the match would go the full length.
Moya claimed his ninth game in his usual style mixing his forehand and double handed returns to power packed serves for points and then showed his experience in winning the set at 6-4. Paradorn on his part erred badly in surrendering the initiative in the tenth game to be broken as his potent forehand returns deceived him.
Down a break point, Paradorn argued with the chair umpire on a line call and then never recovered from that position before losing the first set.
In the second, Paradorn made amends and stuck to the baseline and concentrated on his return and kept the ball in play for Moya to yield points.
But Moya was excellent and hardly allowed Paradorn to dictate. Most often, Moya was able to score points on his double-handed passing shots with Paradorn stuck in the other end.
However, Paradorn, who looked a dwarf in stature compared to the 27-year-old Spaniard had more brains and too technical in his approach. He applied himself well in Moya's third game and hounded his rival. The way, the Thai made Moya run from end to end with effective placements was praised by the knowledgeable crowd with thunderous applause. Moya failed to improve from a break point down and the Thai went on to lead 2-1.
Though Paradorn broke Moya in the third game, he had the turning point in his eighth game. For the first time in the match one got to witness successive rallies and on all the three occasions the Thai was successful. Paradorn having held his eighth game with remarkable recovery shots, grew in confidence.
Paradorn, four rungs down his opponent at 11 in the ATP ranking, gained control and transformed the match in his favour to a great extent. He was given a fright before holding his eighth game but Paradorn had different plan in Moya's ninth game where the Thai achieved his second break for the set with three set points.
There was nothing to choose between the rivals in the decider, which went on serves until 4-4 but Paradorn was at his best testing Moya on both back and forehand. He kept up the tempo of playing all court game and led 5-4.
The tenth game thus became vital for Paradorn, but Moya tightened the grip though he returned the third ball on the net to yield a point (30-15), Paradorn earned the next point with an immaculate volley after dragging Moya to the net. However, Moya sent in an ace to win the game (5-5).
Paradorn was down 15-30 in the 11th game but neutralised the game score with an ace and superb cross-court return only to see that Moya take the game to deuce. However, he turned the tide on his first advantage as Moya sent a long ball to help Paradorn lead 6-5.
In the 12th game, Moya played at a faster pace and Paradorn had to play well away from the base line to measure the bounce. Here, the Thai led 30-15 but Moya keeping Paradorn at the baseline came upfront to score twice. Moya, thus, won the game on first deuce with an ace.
In the tie-break, Moya equipped with lot of variety in his game, led 2-1 and then made it 3-3 but Paradorn was gaining ground as the Spaniard looked to be under pressure.
The Thai led 5-3 but failed to cross the net after a short rally and then Moya serving 4-5 kept Paradorn in a rally and the latter sent the ball wide. Facing a match point on 5-7, Srichaphan failed to get his first serve in and managed a 124 kmph second. Moya pounced on the opportunity to hit a blistering inside out forehand return which just fell on the line, forcing Srichaphan to hit it out to concede the match.