Rafael Nadal and Carlos Moya kept the semi-final date at the Chennai Open as both scored comfortable victories in the last eight on a rain-marred Friday.
- Also read: Ram-Levy in Chennai Open semis-final
Top seed Nadal beat fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-2 while Moya overcame Frenchman Florent Serra 6-3, 6-4 at the SDAT Nungambakkam stadium.
"It's a nice semi-final for us," said Nadal, who leads the head to head 4-2 against Moya. "We have played a lot of times and practice regularly together in Mallorca. It is going to be an interesting match for both of us and I will try to do my best to reach the final."
Both the Spaniards had made surprise semi-final exits at the Chennai Open last year, with Nadal falling to the eventual winner Xavier Malisse of Belgium and Austria's Stefan Koubek taking out the two-time champion Moya.
Moya, who enjoyed a revival in 2007, finishing on 17 in the world rankings, is beating opponents almost a decade younger to him easily, and the quarterfinal against Serra was no different.
The veteran Spaniard fired eight aces; he was solid, without being fantastic, against Serra and advanced into his fifth straight semi-final in Chennai.
Nadal didn't have any problems either dismissing the error-prone Garcia-Lopez.
He broke Garcia-Lopez's serve in the eighth game of the first set and that set the ball rolling. Garcia-Lopez had to stave off break points in the first two service games of the second set, but fell apart later, surrendering the fifth game at love to help Nadal take a 3-2 lead.
Two double faults from Garcia-Lopez saw Nadal go a double break up and wrapped up the set 6-2 in 39 minutes.
More from rediff