Best friends Rafael Nadal and Carlos Moya will be eating home-cooked food earlier than they expected. The Mallorcans, who were tipped for the Big Sunday face-off, lost their respective semi-final matches in straight-sets at the packed SDAT Stadium here today. While top seed Nadal suffered a 4-6, 6-7 (4-7) loss at the hands of Belgian Xavier Malisse, two-time champion Moya was thrashed 3-6, 1-6 by Austrian Stefan Koubek.

Nadal has looked rusty throughout the tournament and today, the two-time French Open champion failed to find his touch against a player who had until now never managed to take a set off him in the two previous occasions they met across the net.

However, to give Malisse due credit, the Belgian played to a carefully worked out strategy this evening. The third seed knew he had to take a few risks and be aggressive on the court, and not allow Nadal to settle into any kind of rhythm.

The maverick Belgian went for broke — he chased down every ball, missed a few here and there but on the whole was successful as he went for the lines.

The strategy ultimately helped him register his first ever career victory over a player ranked as high as No 2 in the world and a place in the final of the 2007 Chennai Open.

“I was very aggressive today. I played a few big forehands. I took a lot of risks. With him you have to take the short balls because if you get into rallies, you don’t stand much of a chance. You will miss a couple of balls, but eventually it will pay off. That’s the way to play him on a hard court,” explained Malisse later.

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