CHENNAI, FEB 19: The field has always been impressive. In 1997, it was headed by Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek. Last year, it featured US Open champion Patrick Rafter. And this year, the field consists of, among other players, Carlos Moya, the French Open champion.And besides an outstanding list of competitors, the Gold Flake Open tennis tournament has also been getting its share of accolades. Last year, it was adjudged the `best promoted tournament' on the ATP Tour; this year, it was the ATP Tour award of excellence.As Mark McCormack, chairman, International Management Group, the event promoters, remarked on Friday at the press conference in connection with this year's tournament, to be held at the Nungambakkam Stadium from April 5 to 11, the event is not just about getting leading players to participate. ``The award is for overall achievement, for organisation, for enthusiastic crowd support and media coverage,'' he said before presenting the award to Kurush Grant, Executive Vice President, ITCLtd., the title sponsors of the tournament.Perhaps for the first time, there will be two `top-10' players with Moya (No.5) being joined by Slovakian Karol Kucera who currently is No.8. And Tournament Director Brian Cooney, who has directed operations for the last two years, was justifiably proud of this fact.He said other leading players who had confirmed participation included Sweden's Thomas Johansson of Sweden (No.17), Byron Black of Zimbabwe (28) and Richard Fromberg of Australia (40). Black, incidentally, was runner-up to Thomas Enqvist when the tournament was held in New Delhi in 1996.While confirming the entry of Sweden's Mikael Tillstrom, the winner in 1997 and runner-up last year, Cooney said the closing date for entries was Feb 22, and the final list of players would be made available next week.Cooney was excited about the participation of Kucera and Johansson. He described the former as a ``classy'' player, one with a ``deft touch'' and spoke in glowing terms about Johansson, who is thetop ranking Swede on the ATP Tour.He paid particular reference to his ``great match'' against Australian Mark Phillipoussis in the US Open quarterfinal last year, which the Swede lost in five sets after having three match points.Cooney said it was the endeavour of the organisers to get at least a reigning Grand Slam champion to participate in the Gold Flake Open. Besides that, efforts were being made to get one or two top ten players to take part and ``with all this, if we get someone like Boris Becker to come like last year, it is a bonus''.India's top players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will also be seen in action and they will be defending the doubles title they won here in 1997 and 1998.N Sankar, on behalf of the All-India Tennis Association, spoke of the rich sporting traditions always prevailing in Chennai, a theme also touched upon by N Kumar, president, Tamil Nadu Tennis Association who said it was fitting that such a prestigious tournament was held in the city of the Krishnans andthe Amritrajs.Tickets will go on sale in the third week of March and season tickets will be priced at Rs 300, Rs 500 and Rs 750. The tournament will again be televised around the World. Last year, it is estimated that the tournament was viewed by approximately 220 million around the world.
