The Hindu : Sport : Chennai Open gets underway today

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Chennai Open gets underway today

Nandita Sridhar

With hopes that a Schuettler or a Moya may go deep

— Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

A REASSURING PRESENCE: Over the years, Carlos Moya has remained faithful to the tournament, ensuring that it can always boast of a Grand Slam champion in its field.

Chennai: Nikolay Davydenko’s case might’ve been different in a different period in men’s tennis. But Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s hectic piling up of trophies has left the tennis achievements of the Russian with a curiously overstated low profile fruitlessly groping for media and public attention when ranked a lowly No. 3.

It took a while for the lack of clothing sponsors and other cases of apathy to come together in distinctly shaping the identity of Davydenko as a World No. 3 famous for being unknown. Novak Djokovic’s success has pushed the Russian down to No. 5 in the rankings, and the absence of a Grand Slam meant not much changed in the last year (if one didn’t count the match fixing allegations he was cleared of).

True to character, Davydenko has appeared removed from the way he’s perceived, sometimes surprised it’s acquired a life of its own.

“It’s not really that way. The media and the public have always been there for me and I have always received appreciation from them on my good days and bad days. It’s the public that loves me and keeps me motivated,” he recently remarked.

In focus

The Russian — the top seed at the Chennai Open — will have it different here. Being the top seed would put him in focus, but his task doesn’t end there. The top seed doesn’t possess a stylistic appeal, neither are there quirky idiosyncrasies. The Russian is quick-footed and a strong counter-puncher — attributes that need time to capture public imagination.

Fans love a story, a star, a charmer, or the sort of familiarity they have with Carlos Moya and Rainer Schuettler.

The city’s annual tennis ritual experienced unseen highs last year after the epic semifinal clash between Moya and Rafael Nadal; but this time, a splatter of unfamiliar names and the absence of a genuine crowd-puller like Nadal would require them to produce an extended run in the tournament.

“It’s, of course, great to be back here since I’ve been quite a regular. But I’m not looking too far ahead now. I will be taking it round by round here,” said Schuettler.

Injury-free Amritraj

Schuettler will play his opening match against Prakash Amritraj on Centre Court on Monday. The 25-year-old Amritraj had an impressive 2008 when he made it to the final at Newport before losing to Fabrice Santoro, and will look to make the best of being injury-free.

“The best thing about 2008 was that Prakash got to play the entire year. Things are looking good now. He had a couple of close matches... and things might have been different had he won those. But it was a good year, and he’s been injury-free,” said Vijay Amritraj.

Somdev Devvarman will have an opportunity to perform at home but will have a tough challenge in getting past American Kevin Kim in his opening round. Marin Cilic and Janko Tipsarevic could open up interesting match-ups in the latter stage.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will be in action with their respective partners. The absence of the Bryan brothers has increased the possibility of a clash between the two in the doubles final. A final between the two in a venue that has given them some memorable wins as a team, brings in an intriguing dynamic to the tournament.

Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna made it to the final qualifying round at the Chennai Open on Sunday, beating Sanam Singh 6-3, 6-4 in the second round.

The results: Second qualifying round: Rohan Bopanna (Ind) bt Sanam Singh (Ind) 6-3, 6-4; Michael Berrer (Ger) bt V.M. Ranjeet (Ind) 6-1, 6-1; Alex Satschko (Ger) bt Rohan Gajjar (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; Flavio Cipolla (Ita) bt Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) 6-3, 6-4; Rajeev Ram (USA) bt Oliver Marach (Aut) 6-2, 6-4; Alexandre Kudryavtsev (Rus) bt P.C. Vignesh (Ind) 6-1, 7-6(5); Kyu Tae Im (Kor) bt Sriram Balaji 6-0, 6-7(4), 6-2; Danai Udomchoke (Tha) bt Louk Sorensen (IRL) 6-4, 6-4.

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