CHENNAI: The Chennai Open started with a bang. The sun glared during the day, while at night the cold wi nds tingled one’s senses. As inter n a tional players arrived one after another, Chennai was the most happening place in India. And the wea ther collaborated, tucking in no pra n ks. As expected most top seeds ad v a nced to the second round comforta bly. India too had its share of cheer.
However, on day 2 Swiss and second seed Stanislas Wawrinka fell to Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla in the first round. But then the beauty of any tournament is when the unexpected happens.
But little did anyone expect the big blow that was to befall on day 3.
What started off as an enjoyably cool day suddenly turned gloomy.
By 2 p.m., the dark forms in the sky solidified and gave way to the wet spoilers. The practice sessions were cut short. Though it was just drizzling, the unrelenting flow ensured that the courts would be not be an inviting sight for some time.
By 5 pm the weather turned chilly and all those talks about battling the hot weather in Chennai on hindsight seemed amusing. As if the wet weather was not depressing enough, Nikolay Davydenko called in a hurried press conference. The imminent announcement was obvious.
By 6 p.m. Davydenko had officially withdrawn from Chennai Open.
Suddenly the genial atmosphere had turned sombre.
It was a big day for India with the doubles pair of Bhupathi-Knowles taking on Prakash-Somdev and Paes-Dlouhy facing Phau-Schuettler.
Also present were squash player Joshna Chinappa and cricketer Siddharth Trivedi of Rajasthan Royals, who were to play an exhibition match. It was 9 pm and the play had still not started. Of course the loyal fans who had turned up were not totally disappointed. Where tennis failed, cricket came to the rescue. Vijay Amritraj and Charu Sharma kept the crowd entertained by hitting some tennis balls into the crowd with a cricket bat. At 9.40 p.m. the play was called off for the day.