The Hindu : Sport : Can Moya break the jinx?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 02, 2005

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Sport

Can Moya break the jinx?

By K. Keerthivasan

Mahesh Bhupathi, Jonas Bjorkman and Rainer Schuettler during the draw for the Chennai Open. — Photo: R. Ragu

CHENNAI, JAN. 1. The eight editions of the ATP Open in Chennai has survived many a threat, withdrawal and early exit by star players to reach where it is now.

A Spaniard in the best form of his life and with generous dose of help from the draw, could well go ahead and break the jinx that has plagued reigning champions when the Chennai Open begins at the Nungambakkam Stadium here on January 3.

What the Swede Mikhael Tillstrom, who won in 1997, Byron Black of Zimbabwe (1999), the Argentine Guillermo Canas (2002) and the Thai Paradorn Srichaphan (2003) failed to do, Carlos Moya could well do. In the draw ceremony released to the media here on Saturday, this much was clear. Moya, the top seed, and ranked No.5, can sleep-walk his way to the semifinals.

The only threat he faces is from the fifth-seed Denmark's Kenneth Carlsen in the last eight. The question uppermost on every fan's mind is how fit and hungry will the former French Open champion be?

Tough round for Paes

Leander Paes, a wild card entrant, has played singles matches in two Davis Cup ties (against New Zealand and Japan) in the whole of 2004. Realistically, not much can be expected when he takes on an up-coming sixth seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei. But how many times has Leander overcome such realities? With the Davis Cup tie against China in Delhi in March, every match will be a bonus for the doughty warrior.

Wild card Karan Rastogi faces the fourth seed Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden. When Anand Amritraj suggested to the Swede that his opposition "is not ranked in the top 150" Bjorkman remarked, "that's the dangerous part."

Top-ranked Indian and wild card Prakash Amritraj takes on Ivo Heuberger of Switzerland in the first round. Paradorn Srichaphan will meet Christophe Rochus of Belgium.

In the doubles main draw, Mahesh Bhupathi-Jonas Bjorkman pair and Leander Paes-Nenad Zimonjic duo are seeded first and second respectively.

Harsh Mankad wins

India's Harsh Mankad utilised his strengths and masked his limitations wonderfully well to defeat Frenchman Stephane Robert 7-5, 6-4 in an hour and 20 minutes in the first qualifying round. The results:

Qualifying rounds (Indians unless otherwise mentioned):

Teimuraz Gabashvili (Rus) bt Vijay Kannan 6-1, 7-6 (8-6); Vinod Sridhar bt Jaco T Mathew 6-2, 6-0; Ashutosh Singh bt Melle Van Gemerden (Ned) 6-4, 6-2; Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) bt Ashley Fisher (Aus) 6-3, 6-4; Nenad Zimonjic (SCG) bt Stephen Amritraj (US) 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2); Harsh Mankad bt Stephane Robert (Fra) 7-5, 6-1; Andy Ram (Isr) bt Mustafa Ghouse 6-1, 6-3; Jonathan Marray (GBr) bt Rahil Syed 6-2, 6-1; Ajay Ramaswami bt Divij Sharan 6-0, 6-4; Zeljko Krajan (Cro) bt Robert Lindstedl (Swe) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2; Andrei Stoliarov (Rus) bt Jean-Francois Bachelot (Fra) 6-3, 6-4; Jamle Delgado (Gbr) bt Jeevan Nedunchezian 6-3, 6-3; Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Vishal Uppal 7-6 (8-6), 6-4; Nicolas Devilder (Fra) bt Yaoki Ishll (Jpn) 6-3, 6-0; Kristian Pless (Den) bt Sunil Kumar 6-7 (-7), 6-2, 6-4; Julian Knowle (Aut) bt Tripp Phillips (US) 6-3, 6-3.

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