Ten out of Ten(nis)

The setting : Saturday 6th Jan2008 , Chennai open 08 2nd semifinal

The participants : Rafael Nadal & Carlos Moya - Both Spaniards ,friends and eternal favourites of the adoring Chennai crowds

The result : Magic :)



What a match ! One of the best tennis matches ive seen and definitely the finest exhibition of sport ive seen live.

The excitement started even before entering the stadium as our car found itself stranded next to Nadal's car in the customary traffic jam leaving us literally one glass away from him ..Not like he even turned in our direction but still.....

With the preliminaries ( the other semi :P ) dispatched off , the stage was set for a fantastic match .In that packed stadium ,surprisingly Moya had more number of ( or atleast more vocal ) fans

Moya,to the surprise of many, won the first set courtesy of a tiebreaker . When he capitalised on that and actually had 4 match points in the second people were quite stunned ... i was never a Moya fan but he played some really admirable tennis this match .. I was never really a nadal fan as well but got to admire his tenacity and never say die attitude .. Clawed back from the brink with some amazing plays and won the second set tiebreaker much to the approval of the crowd who did not want this exhilarating display of tennis to end .





The third set provided more thrills and twists with only the tame ending being an anti climax as nadal ran away with the tiebreak

The match as a whole was of very high quality with not too many unforced errors and several plays that brought the audience to its feet .. The atmosphere was electric as expected and just when one thought the match was done , there was a twist in the tale,resulting in 3 very long sets ..The match was the longest three-set match since 1993 where a match also spanned the same amount of time.

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable experience ably aided by the mokkai's of Gau , KB & Ara and the crowd razzing of Charu Sharma :)

Said moya after the match "The crowd reaction was unbelievable, this is one of the things that motivates you to go on at 31 years of age." . which about sums up how much good playing in chennai does him as i dont think he is revered so much anywhere else .

said Nadal "This was one of my best wins ever. It was a very emotional match."

It was called the best match in the history of this tournament and it left Nadal in poor shape for the final which he promptly lost 6-0 6-1 to youzhny in less time than it took for a single set in the previous match

PS : Had tickets for the whole week except the final . Turned out to be a blessing in disguise what with Nadal looking like he needed Steve Bucknor to referee this match to have any chance of winning :)