Koubec likes his Indian odyssey

The blonde-haired, grey-eyed man shrugs it off as ‘some crazy, stupid stuff’ that he does on the tennis court which led him to hold those dubious honours. What the 30-year-old doesn’t mind talking about is why he doesn’t mind coming back to India to play, every time there is an offer.

A rookie in Chennai when the city hosted its inaugural ATP event ten years ago, Koubek returned last year to Mumbai, in search of form that had deserted him and dumped him out of the world’s Top-100 table. “It all started here in Mumbai last year, after a year out due to injury. It was tough, but I got back into the 100s in this city after almost six unsuccessful months starting in Zagreb in February,” he distinctly recalls last year’s edition.

Arriving weak-kneed in Mumbai – owing to injury – he caused a few heart-arrests here after he dumped out crowd favourite Mario Ancic in the quarters. “I didn’t care about that — yeah, the crowd liked him.

But people were nice to me as well,” he stresses of his brazen march into the semis, which pushed him up the rankings ladder.

The Austrian leapt onto the aircraft the next time around tennis’ jamboree headed to India – and arrived in Chennai thereafter. As luck – and the draw – would have it, he made the finals. “I love this country, and I’ll keep coming back,” he says affably, adding rather uncharacteristically for an European:

“I feel comfortable with the weather here.” He shockingly adds, “I like this humidity, as I don’t sweat too much.”