09 January,2009 07:10 AM IST | | Nikhil Subramaniam
Somdev Devvarman celebrates his win over world No 42 Carlos Moya at the Chennai Open yesterday. Pics/AFP
Moya succumbs to young gun Somdev, who brings up crowd factor in amazing win
The days of Carlos Moya are over. On the first day of the Chennai Open, a message on the public wall said, 'I'm only here for Moya'. But after yesterday Somdev Devvarman is the headlining act at the Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium.
With his 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over sixth seed Moya, Somdev has emerged as the new blue-eyed boy. And he acknowledged the crowd's role in his biggest scalp yet. "I think they were fantastic and it really got me going. During changeovers, it was great to hear all this support," Somdev said after his entry into the Chennai Open quarter-finals.
Somdev needed every ounce of support he could get after falling behind 0-3 in the first set. The 23-year-old did manage to level things but Moya came up on top eventually, breaking Somdev from 15-40 position to take the set.
In the second set, Somdev squandered five opportunities to break Moya's serve. The Spaniard world No 42 but ended up losing his serve in the 11th game as Somdev leveled the set scores.
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The third set was the most captivating. After going up on serve, Moya had six break points in the second game, but Somdev managed to save all of them.
"That was the turning point of the match. I saved all the break points and then broke him back in the next game. After that I was feeling on top and he was trying to force points out of me.
"That gave me confidence to attack. I knew he was a little defensive after that," Somdev said.
Despite some problems in the beginning of the match, Somdev settled down to give Moya his worst defeat in Chennai.
"I believed that I could win right from the beginning. I think that's the key when you going to play great players.
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Intimidated
"I got out there, lost my very first service game. I fought back hard, did all the right things to come back. But the initial trouble was because I was a little bit intimidated by the fact it was Moya."
The former world No 1 looked weary in the second set itself but could only amble along to meet Somdev's long strokes in the third.
"I felt like I had no energy left and he took advantage of that. I was trying to finish off points early because I did not want to go into long rallies. In the end, he was better today. He does have the potential to break into the top 100 in the future," Moya said.
