World No. 2 men's tennis player Rafael Nadal of Spain and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia have advanced to the finals of the Chennai Open hard court tennis tournament in India.
Youzhny, the fourth seed, scored an easy win over Marin Cilic of Croatia, 6-2, 6-3 in the early match. The world's No. 19 player converted four of eight break points and lost just 10 points on his serve.
Nadal had a much tougher time with two-time former champion and compatriot Carlos Moya of Spain. The top-seeded Nadal needed three sets that ended in tiebreakers to oust Moya, 6-7, 7-6, 7-6. It was the 21-year-old Nadal's fifth career win against only two losses to Moya.
The Chennai tournament is being played on hard courts at the Sports Development Authority Tamil Nadu tennis stadium. The event is also a key warm-up for the first major tournament of the year, the Australian Open, which starts January 14th in Melbourne.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
