The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Moya, Srichaphan for Chennai Open

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Moya, Srichaphan for Chennai Open

By Our Sports Reporter

CHENNAI, NOV. 25. In the eight years of its existence, the Chennai ATP event has thrown up new champions and some exciting players too. The $400,000 Chennai Open, beginning at the SDAT-Nungambakkam Stadium on January 3, 2005, with three players from the top 65, promises top-quality stuff as far as pure tennis is concerned.

Thirty-two-year-old Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden is the only new and saleable face. A top doubles player, Bjorkman, in his first visit here, finds himself in the singles main draw, which was released at a press conference here on Thursday.

2004 champion Carlos Moya of Spain and Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan are the top two seeds in the draw of 32.

Speaking at the function, V. Narayanan, President, TNTA, said without "the vision of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa", it would not have been possible to retain the tournament. She will inaugurate the tournament on January 3, Narayanan added.

Ravi Krishnan, Managing Director, South Asia, IMG-TWI, said the Chennai Open has been a "collective effort of so many people." He said that IMG will co-ordinate and promote Chennai on the world stage. The three wild cards will be announced in "due course," said Ravi Krishnan.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes will play with different partners. Tennis legend and chief guest Ramanathan Krishnan said it was just not possible to fill up the slot with the top 32 players in the world like Wimbledon. "It does not happen," he said.

P.W.C. Davidar, Member Secretary, SDAT, promised it would be an "exciting five years."

M.P. Shankar, Executive Committee member, AITA, also spoke on the occasion.

All the representatives of the Platinum sponsors (Government of TN, Indian Bank, IOB, United India Insurance Co. Ltd. & IOC) and the Gold sponsors (Murugappa Group, St. Gobain, Sundaram Finance, L&T, Chennai Petroleum & SAIL) were present during the function.

The main draw entries (with nationality and ATP rankings in brackets): Carlos Moya (Esp, 5), Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha, 27), Rainer Schuettler (Ger, 42), Jonas Bjorkman (Swe, 69), Alex Calatrava (Esp, 81), Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe, 86), Dennis van Scheppingen (Ned, 87), Jan-Michael Gambill (USA, 89), Jeff Morrison (USA, 91), Kenneth Carlsen (Den, 93), Kevin Kim (USA, 99), Santiago Ventura (Esp, 101), Alexander Popp (Ger, 102), Lars Burgsmuller (Ger, 103), Olivier Mutis (Fra, 105), Gregory Carraz (Fra, 111), Christophe Rochus (Bel, 112), Kristof Vliegen (Bel, 114), Adrian Garcia (Chi, 115), Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia & Montenegro, 116), Gilles Elseneer (Bel, 117), Ivo Heuberger (Sui, 118), Michal Tabara (Cze, 119), Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra, 121), Justin Gimelstob (USA, 155).

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