Somdev saves the Chennai Open

The Chennai Open, considered to be India's biggest tennis event, always had a good reputation among the players and the officials. Reason being the good attendance and knowledge of the Chennai crowd. Some really great players like Pat Rafter, Rafeal Nadal, Carlos Moya and Michel Tillstrom have graced the Chennai courts. Infact, this tournament has made the city the Tennis capital of India. From GoldFlake Open in 1997, to Tata Open in 2000, it snow the Chennai open withe the main sponsors being the Tamil Nadu government

But for some reason, the 2009 edition. the 13th succesive edition, of the tournament was feared to be a low key affair. The few reasons being non participation of top ranked players, as Rafeal Nadal pulled off for playing in the prestigious Dubai Open, and the long eluding Federer also citing the same reason. The highest ranked player was Russian Nikolay Davydenko ranked 5th in the world and YES, there was the Chennai favourite Carlos Moya along with some big names like Rainer Schuttler, Mario Cilic who were among the top 30. And then there were our own boys Rohan Bopanna, Prakash Amritraj and Somdev Devvarman. The two greats of India- Lee and Hesh preferred to pair up with different partners and contest in the tournament. So was this enough to draw the chennai crowd?

The attendence for the first two days were not encouraging, and the sight of empty stands would not have been a pleasant sight for the organizers. But that was not a surprise though, as the crowd starts to pour in only from the quarter final rounds. But it seemed unlikely that even the QF round would be graced by the people as the developments during the first 2 rounds were not at all good. Davydenko, the most valuable player of the tournament withdrew citing a heel injury and was also expected to miss the Australian Grand slam. The two promising indians Amrithraj and Bopanna left the scene, the latter without a noise and the former created a flutter. And the big nail in the box was the ousting of Carlos Moya, the crowd puller, by our very own Somdev. Lee and Hesh followed suit by then leaving the Indian hopes completely on the shoulders of Somdev. Little would have expected Somdev to overcome Moya and though it is a proud thing that an indian was through, would he be able to grow any further in the tournament?, was the fear the organizers had.

Somdev Devvarman, a Tripura-born Chennai lad learnt his tennis in the same venue for his first few years, before leaving for the US. He came in with no expectations into the tournament and after the first few matches, he had the whole of India cheering for him. After killing one giant in the form of Moya, Somdev was ready to face another. Ivo Karlovic, the world no. 25 was the next opponent for Somdev and the Indian was upto the task. The 6'10" croat was never in control of the match as the comparitively puny Somdev raced through the match with a handsome 7-6, 6-4 victory over the croat. Now ther was a smile in the face of the organizers, as Somdev filled in the shoes of the likes of Davydenko and Moya. As the QF was viewed by a full house, Somdev ensured that the remaining matches also get the same response. The much awaited match between Somdev and Rainer Schuttler was not on, as the German withdrew from the match with a wrist injury. By now, even the doubles matches were viewed with great interest by the public. Somdev's tryst with glory was finally ended when he went down fighting to Mario Cilic. The crowd though had witnessed a pulsating encounter and were treated to a great exhibition of professional tennis. Somdev may have lost the final, but won many hearts in front of his home crowd. And also he made the organisors happy and ensured that there were no more talks of the tournament moving out of Chennai. The $450000 tournament is here to stay and we chennaites should be always there to support them.