Kristof Vliegen, better-known to Chennai as Kim Clijsters's hitting partner back home in Belgium, stamped his mark on the SDAT stadium by knocking out the city's very own Paradorn Srichaphan in the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open on Friday.
The gangly Vliegen, ranked number 93, played a smart game to beat the Thai 6-1, 6-2 in less than and hour and book a place in the last four.
The 23-year-old Belgian, who has yet to lose a game in the tournament, didn't give the four-time finalist any leeway; kept pushing the ball in his court and waited for the errors from the temperamental Srichaphan.
Twenty-one minutes, and the first set was over. The count, Srichaphan winning only 16 points in the entire set.
Another thirty, and it was match over for the 27-year-old, who came to Chennai after a week's stint in a monastery.
More than anything else, Vliegen played the basics right -- a strong serve, solid baseline play and great court coverage. Though his ground-strokes were not powerful enough, he imparted enough top-spin to negate the baseline thunderbolts from Srichaphan.
The Thai tried to come into the net more in the second set but was let down by his backhand slice. After Srichaphan had held onto the first game of the match, Vliegen took nine games in a row to win the first set 6-1 and proceed to a 3-0 lead in the second.
Vliegen, coming into the match after upsetting sixth seed Rainer Schuettler in the second round, broke Srichaphan's serve in the first game of the second set when Srichaphan hit a backhand slice into the net.
A backhand cross-court pass set up match-point for Vliegen on Srichaphan's serve in the eighth game. The Belgian completed a smashing win when the Thai hit a forehand long. The match was over even before the crowd had started coming in.
Vliegen, who avenged his quarter-final loss to Srichaphan at Chennai last year, admitted that the Thai didn't play his best tennis on Friday.
"If Paradorn had played the way he played last year I wouldn't have won the match," he said. "I knew he wasn't playing very well because of the tough three-set matches in the first two rounds and took advantage of that.
"I did my job well today. I had two quite fast matches earlier and was feeling good right from the first ball," the 23-year-old said.
He said he did not do anything different from his earlier matches and played a technically solid game.
"In the first set I played very well; I knew Paradorn was not quite into it and waited for the errors. That is the basic thing to do."
Srichaphan, a four-time finalist in Chennai, agreed that he was feeling the stress of playing a tough three-setter on Thursday night.
"He took his opportunity and even when I tried to pump myself up I couldn't do much about it. He gave me no chance," said the Thai.
Vliegen will meet the winner of the match between Ivan Ljubicic and Gilles Muller.
