The Hindu : Tata Open: Top quality stuff on the cards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 30, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Tata Open: Top quality stuff on the cards

By Nirmal Shekar

DECIDING THE DESTINY: Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj picks out the draw for the Tata Open, scheduled to begin on Monday, as ATP Supervisor Gerry Armstrong looks on. — M. Moorthy

Chennai Dec. 29. Tomorrow dawns today, make that yesterday, if you wish. And, next year begins two full days and nights before this one is out! Welcome, then, to the world of professional tennis, a world powered by high-octane fuel that travels faster than light, where tomorrow's business ought to have been taken care of yesterday.

And so indeed it is at the Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium here, where the first burst of gunfire — forehands, backhands and aces — was heard on Saturday morning in the qualifying rounds of the 2003 Tata Open and the business of main draw begins on Monday afternoon, a good 31 hours before we'd get to ring in the New Year.

India still eons behind

It is in such a world that Indian tennis is waiting for yesterday's dawn, so to say! For many years here, Indians have been the perfect hosts, so selfless that many of host country players have even politely produced invitation cards — read that wild cards, in tennis terms — to make their way to their own backyard.

Of course, the admirable Leander Paes, in many ways a pure one-off in the context of Indian sport, has created more than a mere ripple now and again in singles — not the least in 1998 when he stormed into the semifinals and played a wonderfully entertaining match against Pat Rafter, the eventual champion.

Of course, Paes and his former partner Mahesh Bhupathi, inarguably one of the greatest doubles teams of recent times, have time and again produced believe-it-or-not heroics on the centre court to capture the imagination of tennis lovers in what is the spiritual home of the game and have won four titles.

But tennis, we must admit, is first and foremost a one on one sport. Tennis is pure theatre, great theatre because it is one man against another. If it were not, they'd play four doubles rubbers and one singles rubber in Davis Cup — not the other way. If it were not, Todd Woodbridge would rate higher than Pete Sampras in the Grand Slam heirarchy.

It is here that India is waiting to sight yesterday's dawn. It is here that, in a world that is forever on fast forward mode, we are still hitting the rewind button to re-associate ourselves with glory.

There are three Indians in the main draw in singles here — perhaps two, for the third is a Person of Indian Origin, POI as the passport office would choose to call him — and all three will be playing courtesy a wild card. The hope that there will be a fourth died a rather quick death when Tomas Behrend outgunned Rishi Sridhar 6-4, 6-0 in the second qualifying round on Sunday.

To be sure, Paes has more than once played in this tournament on his own merit and he is, inarguably, the finest singles player we have had in the last decade, one who has the world's best Davis Cup record among active players today.

But Paes has hardly played any singles this year and how well he might be able to kick start the new season remains to be seen. The other two who might be of some interest to Indian fans are Rohan Bopanna, the lanky man who has come a long way during the year, and Prakash Amritraj, son of Vijay Amritraj.

And these will be competing in a big league that contains names such as Guillermo Canas, the defending champion from Argentina, Mark Philippoussis — a gifted Aussie who has seen more hospital beds than tennis courts in recent times — Paradorn Srichaphan, Asia's finest and the finalist here earlier this year, Sjeng Schalken, Andrei Pavel and Karol Kucera.

``It may not look a rosy picture today but we have to keep at it and back our boys. You have to look at four of five guys and give them all the support you can,'' said Vijay Amritraj whose son Prakash — an American passport holder — has been granted permission by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to represent India in Davis Cup, if the selectors found him good enough to make the team.

Vijay watched the qualifying round matches with great interest and he believes that the up and coming players like Bopanna should put in a lot of hard work. ``He has a big serve and a decent forehand. But he has to work on his lateral movement and get to the net in quick time too,'' said Vijay.

Then again, at a time when Indian tennis is pretty close to running on empty, a lot is going to depend on the improvements made by men such as Bopanna, Prakash and Harsh Mankad, to name only three.

And, this tournament itself will prosper a great deal should young Indians make the big league — get into or near the top 100 in the sport in singles.

Waning popularity

There has been considerable debate over falling crowd support for this event over the last two or three years. Mid-day today, the ticket office clerk at the stadium could very well afford a siesta for all the demands that were made on him!

But then, everything that has happened since the last sighting here of a man called Boris Becker, in a chauffeur driven Mercedes Benz that crawled out of the stadium like a departing Monarch's, with hundreds running behind and standing along the way and waving out with tears in their eyes, has paled in comparison with the events of 1998 when Becker and Rafter played here.

Then again, in a $400,000 event, it will never be possible to assemble the Who's Who of men's tennis. And, over the last three years, we have indeed seen some top quality stuff from an array of gifted stars — and there is no reason to think it will be any different this time.

Yet, the point is, as we have seen here when Bhupathi and Paes have marched their way to the finals, there is nothing quite like watching the Indian winners. The patriotism card is sport's consistently unfailing pulling card and if Indians can cause a ripple or two in singles, that will be the day when the stands will come alive.

The draw has not been kind to Paes though. The heroic performer will play the fourth seed from Argentina, Juan Ignacio Chela, in the first round. ``I have hardly played any singles. But I am looking only at the Davis Cup tie (Japan, at New Delhi, early February),'' said Paes who with David Rikl, is seeded No. 2 in doubles. And no marks for guessing who the No.1 seeds are. It is Bhupathi and Woodbridge.

Should the seedings hold, there will be fireworks on court here on Sunday, January 5. But, in tennis terms, that is a million miles away. And right now, in a very, very good quality field in both singles and doubles, nobody will be foolish enough to look past the first opponent.

For Bopanna, it will be Zeljiko Krajen from Croatia, while Prakash Amritraj will play the experienced Jiri Vanek in the first round.

As for the contenders, the champion Canas (1) plays Dick Norman from Belgium, Srichaphan (2) takes on Jan Vacek, Philippoussis is up against a qualifier, Michael Kohlmann, and Sjeng Schalken (3) will do the battle with Juan Balcells of Spain.

Olivier Patience, Michael Kohlmann, Julien Varlet and Tomas Behrend qualified for the event today.

Monday's matches

Centre court: 5 p.m. start: Rainer Schuettler (Ger) vs Julian Knowle (Aut); Prakash Amritraj (USA) vs Jiri Vanek (Cze); Juan Ignacio Chela (Arg) vs Leander Paes (Ind); Rohan Bopanna (Ind) vs Seljko Krajen (Cro).

Court No. 1: 5 p.m. start: Kristian Pless (Den) vs Jean Lisnard (Fra); Jerome Gomard (Fra) vs Albert Portas (Esp); Julien Varlet (Fra) vs Sargis Sargsian (Arm).

Court No. 2: 5 p.m. start: Lars Burgsmuller (Ger) and Petr Luxa (Cze) vs Tomas Cibulec and Ota Fukarek (Cze); Guillermo Canas and Martin Garcia vs Devin Bowen and Thomas Shimada (Jpn); Sjeng Schalken and John Van Lottum (Den) vs Petr Pala and Pavel Vizner (Cze).

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