Hold on, tonight’s NOT the big nightWeather takes it’s toll as Paes vs Bhupathi clash pushed back to Saturday

Joseph Koraith (Mumbai Mirror)
For all the big names and big serves, this was
the match of the tournament. The doubles encounter between Leander Paes/ Aisam
Qureshi and Mahesh Bhupathi/ Mario Ancic was supposed to light up the
tournament, send sparks flying across centre-court. The Mumbai Open will have to
wait until Saturday for those sparks now.
Late last evening, the doubles
draw was thrown into chaos thanks to a double-withdrawal. First to opt out was
the the German pair of Denis Gremelmayr and Simon Greul, because of a hip injury
to Gremelmayr. Because of this pull-out the winner of the Paes-Bhupathi (only
for convenience) match got a direct entry into the final.
Later, Juan Martin
del Potro and his partner Juan Monaco also pulled out, Del Potro having been
forced to retire from his singles match with an upset stomach earlier.
These
injuries once again brought up the issue of too many matches played in too many
different conditions. From playing on indoor clay in a cold climate to suddenly
playing on hardcourt in a hot and humid country, the players are having a tough
time adjusting.
Del Potro, during his match against Ramon Delgado, seemed
sluggish to begin with, being stranded a lot times by Delgado’ down-the-line
shots.
Having taken a game off Del Porto, Delgado won the first set 6-3.
After the third game of the second set Del Porto was feeling uneasy and went off
court to the washroom where he ended up vomiting. He came back and played the
next game. But the uneasiness continued and in spite of being treated by the ATP
doctor, he retired after the next game with the score at 4-2. Delgado has not
played a complete match so far with his earlier match also being conceded by
Davide Sanguinetti who retired due to gastrointestinal problems.
The Indian
weather is definitely taking its victims and depriving the crowd of interesting
tennis encounters. Dmitry Tursunov agreed that the weather was playing truant.
“Your immune system does tend to give away in this kind of weather,” he said
but also stated that the weather was the same for all the players and everyone
has to adjust to it.

For original article: www.mumbaimirror.com/nmirror/mmpaper.asp?sectid=6&articleid=92820062258522039282006225712296

The Schedules for Todays Quarterfinals....So here it goes:

Centre Court timings in IST

Match Start At 5:00 PM

Bjorn PHAU (GER) VS Tomas BERDYCH (CZE)

2 followed byStefan KOUBEK (AUT) VS Mario ANCIC (CRO)

3 followed byTommy ROBREDO (ESP) VS Ramon DELGADO (PAR)


Court 1

Starting at 6:00 PM

Dmitry TURSUNOV (RUS) VS James AUCKLAND (GBR)

So Good Luck to all- Germans, Czechs, Austrians, Croats, Spanish, Paraguayans, Russians and Britons... and Indians!!!!