After shocking Rafael Nadal in the semifinal, Malisse carried the same venom to thrash Stefan Koubek 6-1 6-3 in the final on Sunday.
CHENNAI: Third seed Xavier Malisse of Belgium halted giant killer Stefan Koubek's superb run as he outclassed the Austrian 6-1 6-3 to lift the ATP Chennai Open singles title on Sunday.
After shocking world number two and top seed Rafael Nadal in the semifinal, Malisse carried the same venom to thrash Koubek 6-1 6-3 in the baseline duel, which turned out to be one of the shortest finals in the history of the tournament.
The unseeded Koubek, who turned giant killer ousting seventh seed Paradorn Srichaphan, Julien Benneteau and Spaniard Carlos Moya, had no answer to the repertoire of shots and all court play of 37th ranked Malisse.
It was Malisse day at the centre court and the Belgian, who is also in the doubles final, has a chance to become the first player in the tournament history to claim a double.
Malisse and his compatriot Dick Norman will face the Spaniard duo of Nadal and Bartolome Salve Vidal for the doubles crown.
Koubek never found his rhythm throughout the match and did not play to his potential as he did on Saturday against two time champion Carlos Moya of Spain.
More often he dished out soft returns to fall a prey to the hard-hitting Belgian.
The Austrian, who made numerous unforced errors and struggled with his serves, opened the match shakily losing his first service game.
Barring the fourth game, in which he allowed himself to be broken back, Malisse was unstoppable in the first set which he wrapped up in just 25 minutes.
In the second set, Koubek did a little better holding his serves but conceded the fourth game, which was enough for the third seed to cruise to the title triumph.
The Belgain served out the match on the second deuce after saving a break point.
With Sunday's win, Malisse has stretched the head-to-head against Koubek to 3-0. He had beaten him earlier twice in Masters Series in 2002 (Madrid and Paris) and once in 2003 (Roland Garros).
Malisse, who won his second career title after Delray Beach event in 2005, said, "It is always the best period to win a title. If the doubles title also come than it is great. It is a unique chance," he said referring to his final in the doubles event later on Sunday night.
Malisse, who walked away with the cash prize of USD 65,850 said, "This is a dream start".
Koubek, who collected the runners-up purse of USD 35,500, said, "Xavier played unbelievable tennis. He started off much better than me, particularly in the last game of the second set".
"If you start a season like this it's awesome. Hope I will keep the up level and play some more finals and win some titles too during the year," he said.
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