An Evening at Chennai Open

The greatest sporting event that I like to visit to. This is how sports commentator puts the Chennai Open as. I couldn't agree more! Day 2 at the Chennai Open 2006 was a feast of great Tennis and lots of fun.

The crowd at Chennai (me included) can't really decide who they like more, Thai Tiger- Paradon Srichaphan or The King - Carlos Moya. I am sure everybody is routing for a Final between these two, and Day 2 saw both of them in action in their respective first round matches.

We reached a bit late to the stadium (ctsy bad traffic -- it's really got worse hasn't it?). The Srichaphan-Delago match was in the 2nd set. Srichaphan had lost the first set ! But the man was on fire in Set 2. Srichaphan's All-Action style was at its best as he easily took the set 6-1. In the 3rd set Delago found a bit of his game and soon it was tie-break! Srichaphan did not sweat in the tie-break and comfortably won the match. He is definitely a man on mission as he wants to get on the winning side of the Final this year. "I'm determined to put my disappointing 2005 behind me. I'm here on a mission. My primary aim is to get into the quarterfinals. Though Ljubicic and Moya are in good form, it's anybody's game from the last eight stage." is what he had to say in the post match interview. Yes Paradon we would love to see you lift the Chennai Open.

The next game on Centre Court saw defending champion Carlos Moya start his first round against the second tallest and one of the oldest pro's on ATP, the 6'8" Dick Norman. As the first set progressed it seemed that Moya would wrap things in no time. That's when it stuck us that our man Rohan Bopanna was to play on Court 1. It was really a good decision to go catch Rohan playing on Court 1. Having won three matches in the qualifiers, Rohan seemed to be in a fine form as he was making his opponent Cyril Saulinier of France run around the court. Cyril had no answers to Rohan's ground-strokes and after a couple of close calls not going his way, he really lost his cool. Making gestures and shouting profanities in French, which would never be shown on TV, he got the crowd even more against him. A splendid 6-3,6-3 straight set win was how Rohan wrapped up things in just 55 mins. "This is the best match I have played after the Davis cup singles tie against Holland's Martin Verkerc in 2003 although I had lost that five set match," Bopanna said. Well Rohan we want you to play better and better with each match and see you in Final!!!

Having seen two scintillating matches it was time for some fun. Leander Vece Paes or Lee as he is fondly called is a darling of Indian Tennis. I first saw Lee play in 1995 at Jaipur. It was a Davis Cup play off against South Africa and Lee had beaten Wayne Ferrera in a thriller. Since then I have seen him at other Davis Cup play-offs and ofcourse at Chennai Open. Last evening he was at the Mercedes-Benz Stall signing autographs. That's what makes Chennai Open so great. You can see the stars at close quarters, shake hands with them, pat them, praise them! After ogling Lee for sometime and grabbing a bite, it was back to Centre Court for some more great tennis.

King Moya had dropped a set and this match too had gone into the decider. Could things be better ? The first three games went on serve and it was then Moya raised his game a notch. The fourth game of third set was a thriller. Dick Norman was serving and the game had numerous Deuces, before Moya finally broke the game. It was smooth sailing for Moya after that. There were cat calls of "Come on Dick! You can do it!!", which brought a round laughter through the stadium. Alas this evening Dick couldn't do it! Moya took the final set 6-1 to win the match. In the post match interview Moya said that he was really focused to make a Hat-Trick at Chennai Open. It was around this time that I was also seen on TV as a friend of mine called up told me so!

The last match of the day : No 1 seed Ivan Ljubcic against last years semi-finalist Gullimero Garcia-Lopez. This was by far the best match of the day. Both players were giving more than 100%. There were some really beautiful groundstrokes by Garcia-Lopez, some great volleys by Ljubicic, few atrocious calls(actually no-calls when the ball was in fact out) by a baseline umpire (who I think was sleeping), gave a real feast of what ATP Tennis is really about. At no point in the match could you really predict who would win. The first set was won by Ljubicic in tie-break. Both of them traded breaks early in second set. It was only in the 11th game that Ljubcic was able to break Garcia-Lopez again. He went on to win the set 7-5. Aha I would have loved to see a third set in this match!

With Moya and Ljubcic looking in fine touch, a resurgent Srichaphan, two Indians Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna in Round 2, there is definitely a great fare of Tennis over the next four days! Who will be the winner this time is anybody's guess. I sure hope I get the time to catch few more matches in this greatest sports tournament that I like to visit to.

Cherio!!!