'We were not equipped to handle the rain'
As Chennai Open got down to the business end on Friday, intermittent showers played havoc with the schedule.
Carlos Moya just got through his quarter-final match but the clash between Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Rafael Nadal, for whom the spectators overlooked a gloomy sky and made way to the Nungambakkam stadium, got delayed by almost four hours.
"We were not anticipating this," said IMG India head Balu Nayar. "The drying methods we used were still very manual [using towels and a hoover].
"It's not a Wimbledon, where you'd expect it to start raining any time. It's the first time that it has rained for almost the entire day; we had brief showers towards the end of the tournament at times but not this heavy. We were not equipped to handle this, but I am sure if such a situation arises again we can handle it."
Nayar also took pride in the fact that apart from Halle or Queen's, preparatory tournaments for the grass court Grand Slam, Chennai Open is the only international series Nadal takes part in.
Robin Haase an accident
Robin Haase's excursion to the Mahabalipuram temple, a day ahead of his quarter-final match, received a rude jolt when his car met with an accident while returning to Chennai.
"The temple was good but the accident wasn't" said the lanky 20-year-old Dutchman. "It happened when we were coming back. Someone banged the car from behind, not too serious though."
Haase, one of the young guns on the tour, shot down second seed Marcos Baghdatis in the first round of the Chennai Open. He then easily overcame Croatian qualifier Lovro Zovko to make it to the last eight of the tournament.
Wooden racquet makes a comeback
Even as Russia's Mikhail Youzhny and sparring partner Alexandre Kudryavtsev slapped the ball at each other, giving a demonstration of modern-day power tennis, at a practice session, Indian legend Vijay Amritraj walked up to them carrying a wooden racquet.
One look at that extinct racquet-type and you understand why tennis must have been a different and a far tougher game.
The racquet head was smaller, the frame thicker and possibly more fragile and the tension of the strings lesser.
From the sidelines, Amritraj tried to hit the ball back to Youzhny during the practice but the ball just limped out of the wooden racquet onto the court. Thereafter, Amritraj only shadow-practiced his shots.
Respiratory problems at the Open
If the shoulder, knee, ankle and back aches were not enough for the nomad tennis players, they are suffering a new ailment in Chennai.
Dr. Vece Paes, who has been handling the players for the past thirteen years, said that this year lots of players are complaining of respiratory problems and back aches.
"I don't know whether it's the pollution or the hot and humid conditions. Sometimes in this humidity, when you are running and taking deep breaths it can affect the respiratory tract. Some players flew down from Delhi and the pollution there could also be the problem.
"Also, a lot of players are complaining of back ache because this is the first tournament of the season."
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