Chennai's darling Moya ousted

CHENNAI: Carlos Moya's Chennai Open adventure came to an early halt on Monday when he was defeated 6-3, 7-6 by Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in the first round.
Moya, twice a champion at the tournament and a forever Chennai favourite since he made his Chennai debut in 1999 is on a comeback from a long injury lay off and it showed in his game as the wild card entrant struggled to match the fourth seeded Serbian in court coverage.
Also, the high number of unforced errors at crucial points didn't help the legendary Spaniard's cause at all. "I did well, 'I'm happy with the game I executed today," said Tipsarevic. "I didn't let him play to his strength and use his forehand which is a very potent weapon."
Earlier, in the inaugural match of the tournament, defending champion Marin Cilic of Croatia broke no sweat in overcoming the challenge of Russian Igor Kunitsyn.
Against Tipsarevic, Moya started well and didn't show any discomfort from the injury which had sidelined him for more than six months.
Both players held their serves for the first five games of the match and then the Serbian surged ahead in emphatic fashion, breaking Moya's serve and racing away to a 5-2 lead in a blink.
Moya didn't get the chance to get back into that game as Tipsarevic closed the deal when he held his next service game.
If Tipsarevic had thought that the match would be a cakewalk, then Moya had a few surprises in store for him.
Moya jumped right back into the fray, matching Tipsarevic shot for shot. But Moya, obviously not match sharp, couldn't deal with the pressures of the tiebreak as his rusted skills were no match for the sharper Tipsarevic.
In the earlier match, defending champion Cilic was always in control.
"First games are always tough," he had said on Sunday, but on Monday those words appeared to be just a smokescreen as the defending champion defeated his Russian opponent 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and thirteen minutes. "I played pretty good," said Cilic after the match.