Two hours and 13 minutes before the final mis-hit from Moya ended the match, though, an Indian entry into the quarter-finals had looked distinctly unlikely. The difference of 160 ranking places between him and his much-travelled opponent must have been preying on the Indian’s mind, betrayed by a couple of nervous forehands, and it was Moya who struck first with a break.

“The key in any match against good players is you have to believe in yourself. When I won a few good points from the baseline, I was hanging in there. I thought, I can win this,” said Somdev, speaking after his match.

The belief began with a flicker, but soon flared into a reckoning force Moya couldn’t fight with. The former world No 1 got broken back within a few minutes, and even though he snuck in with a timely break as Somdev served at 4-5, winning the set 6-4, the Indian made it clear he wasn’t going to be dealt with so easily.

Heat is on

THE second set became a war of attrition, but as Moya stood contemplating the proceedings during the few seconds during each game, a few shakes of his head let on that he wasn’t enjoying the sunny afternoon at all. The heat, he said later, was bothering him, but his opponent’s game too gave him plenty of reason to be perturbed. Somdev kept pace with Moya till the end of the set, and a calculated backhand which landed right inside the line in the 11th game earned him the only break of the second set.

He held on tight to win his next game on serve and take the match into a decider. The turning point would be the second game of the third set. 0-40 down, and a few more break points to follow as the deuces cropped up, it was time to get out the best of what he had. He managed to do that, and more — apart from holding on to his serve, he worked his way to a break on Moya’s serve, helped by a double fault from the 1998 French Open champion. After going down 3-1 within a matter of minutes, Moya couldn’t do much to turn it around.

Ace pack

SOMDEV got his first match point on Moya’s serve in the ninth game of the final set at 5-3, but while the Spaniard staved off that one, there was a sense of inevitability as Somdev took his place to serve for the match, encouraged by deafening cheers. He began with two aces — part of the total number of 10 that he sent down — and finished it off with an unreturnable shot as Moya barely got a weak backhand in.

Somdev is the first Indian to make it to the Chennai Open quarters since Leander Paes in 1998, but that, it seems, isn’t enough for this 23-year-old.

“When I saw that Moya was trying to create something different, it felt good for a player like me that he felt forced to change something. I knew I had a chance and I’m never going to quit. I’m a counterpuncher, and if you want to compare me to a boxer it would be Floyd Mayweather. However much you hit me, I’m not going to be easy to beat. I’m in the quarter-finals now, but I don’t want to be just a quarter-finalist. I don’t want to be satisfied so easily,” he said.

Qualifier Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan took till the second set to put up any semblance of resistance against third seed Marin Cilic of Croatia, who dominated in a 6-0, 6-4 win. The 20-year-old takes on seventh seed Janko Tipsarevic next. The Serbian defeated Israel’s Dudi Sela 7-6, 6-4 on Thursday.

Ivo Karlovic beat Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-1, and eighth seed Marcel Granollers of Spain knocked out Andreas Beck of Germany 6-1, 6-0. Rainer Schuettler ensured a quarter-final appearance with a 6-4, 6-2 win over compatriot Simon Greul.