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Chennai Open: Davydenko faces Koellerer, Wawrinka meets qualifier

Nandita Sridhar

— Photo: R. Ragu

Lukas Dlouhy, Leander Paes, Vijay Amritraj and Rainer Schuettler at the Chennai Open draw ceremony on Saturday.

Chennai: Hampered by rustiness and complacency, first round matches are potentially tricky, however skewed things might be in the seeds’ favour.

Top seed Nikolay Davydenko will find himself up against the 125th ranked Daniel Koellerer of Austria, an opponent he has never faced before.

Second seed Stanislas Wawrinka will face a qualifier in his first round match after the draws for the Chennai Open were made in the Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium on Saturday.

Match practice

“First round matches can be pretty even. Even the ones who qualify will have had match practice, so it will not be as easy as it seems for the higher ranked players,” said Vijay Amritraj at the draw ceremony.

Schuettler to meet Prakash

Chennai regular Carlos Moya will play a qualifier, while Rainer Schuettler of Germany will face wildcard Prakash Amritraj.

Wretched luck

Schuettler’s wretched luck with draws in the past seemed to have reversed on Saturday, but the German was apprehensive about his chances nevertheless. “It’s not really an ideal draw since I practised with him a few days ago. He’s been playing well and has had some good results. Personally, I’m feeling good. I’ve been practising in Kenya and have gotten used to the heat, which means it shouldn’t be a problem adjusting to the weather here,” said the German.

Change of scene

“It was getting a little too cold in Germany, so I was looking for a change of scene and weather. It’s been good to practise in Kenya,” said Schuettler.

Somdev Dev Varman, India’s top-ranked player, will face American Kevin Kim, who is ranked 117. “It could be an even contest. Kevin is a good player on hardcourts, and Somdev did exceptionally well last year,” said Vijay Amritraj.

Dlouhy confident

Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic was confident of his preparation for the event after he was drawn against Japanese Go Soeda.

“The first round match will be tough but I have been practising as I would for any tournament. It’s been a pleasure to come here after Leander invited me. I hope to continue getting good results,” said the Czech.

Interesting encounter

Top seeds Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas were handed an interesting first round encounter against wildcards Prakash Amritraj and Somdev Dev Varman in the doubles draw.

Second seeds Leander Paes of India and Czech Lukas Dlouhy were drawn against Bjorn Phau and Rainer Schuettler of Germany in the first round.

Six Indians through Six Indians made it past the first round of the qualifying matches on Saturday. Rohan Bopanna beat Michel Koning of the Netherlands in three tough tiebreak sets 6-7, 7-6, 7-6.

The results:

Qualifying matches, first round (Indians unless otherwise specified): Michael Berrer (Ger) bt Rohan Gide 6-1, 6-2; Rohan Gajjar bt Abhijeet Tiwari 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(2); Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) bt Pavol Cervenak (Svk) 6-1, 6-2; V.M. Ranjeet bt Vikram B. Reddy 7-6, 6-2; Sanam Singh bt Yuki Bhambri 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; Rohan Bopanna bt Michel Koning (Ned) 6-7, 7-6, 7-6; Flavio Cipolla (Ita) bt Navdeep Singh 6-4, 6-3; Danai Udomchoke (Tha) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-4, 6-2; Louk Sorensen (Irl) bt Vinod Sridhar 6-0, 6-1; Sriram Balaji bt Ronak Manuja 6-2, 6-2; Kyu Tae Im (Kor) bt Naveen Sai 6-0, 6-0; Rajeev Ram (USA) bt Tatsuma Ito (Jpn) 6-4, 6-2; Oliver Marach (Aut) bt Ashutosh Singh (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Alex Kudryavtsev (Rus) 6-4, 7-5; Vignesh Chandrasekar bt Purav Raja 6-3, 6-2. — Sports Reporter

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