The 2008 Chennai Open was a men's

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament played on outdoor

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resin ...

s. It was the 13th edition of the Chennai Open, and was part of the International Series of the 2008 ATP Tour. It took place at the SDAT Tennis Stadium in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, India, from 31 December 2007 through 6 January 2008. The singles draw was headlined by

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to p ...

(ATP) No. 2, three-time French Open champion and 2007 Chennai semifinalist

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...

, 2007 Paris Masters semifinalist

Marcos Baghdatis Marcos Baghdatis (Greek language, Greek: Μάρκος Παγδατής, Arabic language, Arabic: ماركوس بغداتيس); born 17 June 1985 is a Greek Cypriot former professional tennis player and coach. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Aus ...

, and 2007 US Open quarterfinalist and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and 2005 Chennai winner

Carlos Moyá Carlos Moyá Llompart (; born 27 August 1976) is a Spanish former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Moyá won 20 ATP Tour-level singles tit ...

. Also competing in the field were 2007 St. Petersburg semifinalist

Mikhail Youzhny Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny (born 25 June 1982), nicknamed "Misha" and "Colonel" by his fans, is a Russian former professional tennis player who was ranked inside the top 10 and was the Russian No. 1. He achieved a top-10 ranking by the Associ ...

, 2007 Metz semifinalist

Nicolas Mahut Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut (; born 21 January 1982) is a French professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having completed the career Grand Slam with victories at th ...

Jürgen Melzer Jürgen Melzer (born 22 May 1981) is an Austrian tennis coach and former professional tennis player. Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of world No. 6 in September 2010. He has a youn ...

, Werner Eschauer and Marc Gicquel. Fourth-seeded

won the singles title.

Notable stories

Longest three-setter

The semifinal that opposed fellow Majorcans

and

entered

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

history as the longest three-setter since a 1993

Andrei Cherkasov Andrei Gennadievich Cherkasov ( Russian: ; born 4 July 1970, Ufa) is a former professional tennis player from Russia. Career Born in Ufa, Soviet Union, Cherkasov first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player. In 19 ...

win over Andrea Gaudenzi in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

on the score of 6–7, 7–6, 7–5. Both matches lasted three hours and fifty-four minutes. Moya and Nadal's match featured three tie-breaks, with Moya looking on course for victory in the second set, gaining four match points, before Nadal caught up and won the set decider 10–8. An aggressive Moya kept coming to the net, while Nadal's passing shots kept him in the match. Moya had yet another opportunity to win as he served for the match at 5–4 in the third, but Nadal prevented him to capitalize again, eventually claiming a 6–7, 7–6, 7–6 victory. After the match Moya commented: "the crowd reaction was unbelievable, this is one of the things that motivates you to go on at 31 years of age." Nadal admitted it was an "emotional match" and said of Moya "I don't remember the last time I saw him play so well."

Finals

Singles

defeated

, 6–0, 6–1 *It was Mikhail Youzhny's 1st title of the year, and his 4th overall.

Doubles

Sanchai Ratiwatana / Sonchat Ratiwatana defeated

/ Marc Gicquel, 6–4, 7–5

References

External links

Official website

Singles draw

Doubles draw
{{2008 ATP Tour