Familiar faces get together

Carlos Moya and Paradon Srichaphan have been there, done that. The duo is back in Chennai and so are Rainer Schuettler of Germany and Leande...

Carlos Moya and Paradon Srichaphan have been there, done that. The duo is back in Chennai and so are Rainer Schuettler of Germany and Leander Paes.

But apart from that family of familiar figures at the Numgambakkam Tennis Stadium, Ivan Ljubicic has turned quite a few curious heads. The fans are only warming up to his potential here. If 2005 is any indication, the Croat World No. 9 can be on a roll if he hits his stride in the first two matches. “I’m looking at a semifinal spot first,” he says, gearing up for his first ever appearance in this tournament.

On the other hand, defending champion Moya has had an indifferent year while Srichaphan has hit a low.

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Both realise that Chennai is the ideal venue for a good start this season after battling injuries on their right shoulders. Moya meets Dick Norman while Srichaphan faces Ramon Delgado in their opening singles on Tuesday.

Three Indians will appear on centre-court on Monday. Prakash Amritraj plays his opening singles match against Ricardo Mello of Brazil, ranked 92 in the world.

Prakash, who has been training under the watchful eyes of his dad for a fortnight now, will count heavily on home support while India’s doubles specialist Leander Paes and Czech Martin Damm will be trying out their new combination against Ashley Fisher of Australia and Justin Gimelstob of the United States. The other Indian wild card, Vishal Uppal has a mountain to climb against Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic

Monday’s schedule

(Main round matches) Centre-court, 5 pm: P Amritraj (Ind) vs R Mello (Bra); P Srichaphan (Thai)/R Stepanek (Cze) vs Giles Muller/C Saulnier (Cze); M Damm(Cze)/Paes (Ind) vs Fisher(Aus )/Gimelstob (US); J Vanek (Cze) vs V Uppal (Ind). Court 1: (6 pm): YT Wang (Tpe) vs K Vliegen (Bel); T Behrend (Ger) vs M Daniel (Bra)

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Court 4: B Phau (Ger) vs B Reynolds (US); T Ascione (Fra) vs S Greul (Ger).

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