Kristof Vliegen in action against Paradorn Srichaphan during the Chennai Open quarter finals in Chennai on Friday. (AFP)

Chennai: As Paradorn Srichaphan’s humiliating ouster looked like a bad omen for the old order here on Friday evening, Carlos Moya held firm against the charge of the young brigade to move within two matches of a hattrick at the Chennai Open.

Stung by the intensity and quickness of German Bjorn Phau, the third-seeded Spaniard brought all his Grand Slam-winning experience and expertise to play, and ultimately came through 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.

Having survived three three-setters this week already, Moya now runs into second seed Radek Stepanek who didn’t have to raise much sweat in shutting out Frenchman Thierry Ascione 6-3, 6-4.

Srichaphan’s quest for a fifth successive final appearance had earlier been thrown out of the window by 23-year-old Belgian Kristof Vliegen. Nothing went right for the Thai who was left seeking divine intervention. None was forthcoming as Vliegen ran away with the match 6-1, 6-2 in 53 minutes to avenge his straight-set loss to the Thai at the same stage here last year.

Vliegen, though, has an unenviable assignment on Saturday ? to stop top seed Ivan Ljubicic who ran over Gilles Muller 6-1, 6-3. The powerful Croat read his left-handed opponent’s serve well and hardly missed a ball from the baseline to send out a spine-chilling signal for the other challengers.

Vliegen had a modest agenda going into his rematch with Srichaphan: to avoid dropping serve at the start of each set, like he did last year. And boy, didn’t the Belgian succeed in his mission!

Forget losing serve, Vliegen didn’t let the Thai get within sniffing distance of a break-point. The degree of the Belgian’s dominance can be gauged from the fact that he conceded a mere five points (two in the first set and three in the second) in his seven service games in the match.

Srichaphan’s plight was made more pathetic by his own lack of inertia. He didn’t bend well enough for the volleys, the returns kept missing the target not by inches but a foot or more, the first serve disobeyed orders too often.

Srichaphan didn’t look too convincing in the first two matches, both of which went the distance. But few could have predicted such a humiliation, especially against a man he had beaten convincingly here last year.

The sinewy Vliegen spotted the lethargy in Srichaphan early in the match and played smart tennis. He varied the pace, used a sliced backhand to test Srichaphan’s patience and ran his rival around with deep returns.

Srichaphan could hold serve just once in the opening set, in fact the very first game. Thereafter, it was one-way traffic. In the second set, the Thai did marginally better before a slew of errors sealed his fate.

Moya had beaten Phau in their only previous meeting, but he was aware of the amazingly quick pair of legs the German possesses. It was impossible to recognise the boy Boris Becker had brought along with him for the 1998 edition (wild card Phau had lost to Leander Paes in the first round that year).

Moya had planned his strategy well, often running around his forehand to go down-the-line and avoid Phau’s strong backhand side. The Spaniard was playing well, but after he had earned an early break, found Phau lift his level a notch or three. The lightly built German, who idolises Michael Chang, ran around the court like a panther and at times looked swifter than his guru. Phau broke back, only to give the first set away on a couple of loose points in game 10.

Under relentless pressure from Phau’s high-intensity tennis, it was Moya’s turn to crack ? in the third game of the second set. The two-time champion surrendered serve following two uncharacteristic mistakes ?one on either flank. That break was enough for Phau to level set scores.

Realising that a solitary lapse would mean the end of his hattrick dream, Moya shifted gears right at the beginning of the third set. With Phau visibly slowing down, Moya took all the chances that came his way to close the match out comfortably.

Srichaphan didn’t utter a word about any injury at the post-match conference. An hour later, though, came the announcement that the Thai (playing with Radek Stepanek) had withdrawn from the doubles quarter final due to an injury on the left thigh.

Prakash-Rohan in semis

Mysterious as it may be, none at the stadium was complaining because Srichaphan’s ‘benevolence’ had put Indian wild cards Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna into their first ever ATP semi-final.

Amritraj and Bopanna, who both recorded impressive first-round singles wins, will on Saturday face Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske. The German second seeds overcame the Czech pair of Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner 6-4, 6-4.