Xavier Malisse with the trophy after beating Stefan Koubek in the Chennai Open final on Sunday. (Reuters)

Chennai: They say when a tennis player is in the ‘zone’, God help the man across the net. Rafael Nadal was caught napping in the semi-final on Saturday, while Stefan Koubek’s plight was even more pathetic on Sunday as Xavier Malisse captured the Chennai Open crown with some style and finesse.

Malisse won 6-1, 6-3 in 61 minutes, making it the most one-sided singles final here since Paradorn Srichaphan’s conquest of Karol Kucera four years ago. Three hours later, the high-flying Belgian scaled an even higher peak.

Malisse became the first player to clinch a ‘double’ at this popular venue and, in doing so, achieved a rare feat of taming Nadal twice in two days. Playing with countryman Dick Norman for the first time, the unseeded pair edged out Spanish wild-card entrants Nadal and Bartolome Salva-Vidal 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) in a thrilling final watched by a capacity audience.

Malisse, who bagged his third career doubles title, thus went one better than Byron Black, who had won the singles here in 1999 but came second-best (with Neville Godwin) to Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi. As reward for his efforts during a dream week, Malisse took home $75,975.

Nadal couldn’t lay his hands on any of the winners’ trophies, but bowled over Chennai with his intensity and attitude. He never gave anything less than 110 per cent, not even in the two doubles matches (semis and final) after bowing out in singles. And the spirit of a 20-year-old was captured in that one moment when he ran around spraying champagne on Malisse and the others.

Back to Malisse. Those who follow their tennis seriously were left wondering — after seeing Malisse perform this week — why the Belgian is stuck at world No. 37, why he has been so inconsistent despite being as talented as contemporaries like Marat Safin and Juan Carlos Ferrero some seven-eight years ago. Well, the enigmatic Belgian seemed to have found an answer in Chennai, especially on the last two days. He struck gold by following his coach David Felgate’s simple mantra: hold your temper in check, focus on your all-court game and let the racket do the talking.

For the second day running, Malisse looked a champion from the very outset. He dictated the rallies with an awesome forehand which rarely misbehaved. Especially dangerous were those change-in-pace shots which he unfurled out of nowhere to catch Koubek off guard. He also showed this fine ability to hold back a tad and deceive his opponent by going for the flank the left-hander least expected to.

Malisse’s backhand was equally lethal. The one he played with a low backlift to create the right angles fetched him a slew of points.

Koubek had been on a roll after surviving a three-setter in the opening round. Three seeded opponents had surrendered to the guiles of this born-again Austrian prior to the final. On Sunday, though, he found himself at the receiving end. It would be easy to say that the unseeded man, who was seeking his fourth career title, had played out his quota of good tennis this week. The truth was, he wasn’t allowed to get into the match at all.

The southerly breeze hampered Koubek’s swinging returns, which he struggled to control. And as the match wore on, he was forced to take risks and go for the lines to breach Malisse’s solidity.

Koubek did manage to capture Malisse’s serve with a nice service return in game 4. But that didn’t hurt the Belgian as he already had two breaks in the pocket. In fact, Koubek — who had lost all three previous clashes with Malisse — didn’t hold serve even once in the first set, which was a cakewalk for the third seed.

The stocky Austrian looked to be getting into the fighting mode in the second set when disaster struck in game 4. Slumping from 40-15 to deuce, Koubek threw in a double-fault before hitting a routine backhand wide to gift Malisse the crucial break.

The Belgian moved comfortably into the homestretch and then stuttered awhile. In his eagerness to seal only the second ATP title in his 10th final, the nervous Malisse made three rare mistakes and faced a break-point. Fortunately, the serve didn’t let him down. As a Koubek service return lodged into the net, Malisse tossed his racket and jumped in glee.

Chennai could signal the beginning of a new phase in Malisse’s career. For Koubek, too.