OK!

The matches will start from tomorrow and before they start, let me share some clippings with you all.....

here they go

The Logo of Mumbai Open...

One of the courts at CCI (Cricket club of India) 

Bollywood Actress Soha Ali Khan, Mahesh Bhupathi of Globosports, Dr. Vijay Mallya and Mario Ancic..   

Bhupathi looks forward to doubles clash

(This was written before the final draws were announced.)

PTI

MUMBAI, Sept 19:

............The country's two top players, who were nicknamed the 'Indian Express' when they were at the peak in combination on the ATP doubles circuit, are currently playing with different partners and may end up on opposite sides of the net in the tennis tournament here.

Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm are the reigning US Open Champions following their triumphant run in this year's last Grand Slam event in New York while 32-year-old Bhupathi partnered young Croatian Mario Ancic for the first time at Beijing last week and won the China Open doubles crown.

"We (Bhupathi and Ancic) may not be seeded and I am hoping that the two teams (Bhupathi-Ancic and Paes-Damm) would meet in the final," said Bhupathi at a press conference held to announce a new associate sponsor - Aviva Life Insurance - for the Mumbai ATP event here on Tuesday. Bhupathi refused to draw a comparison between his new 22-year-old partner Ancic and Paes, saying he and the Croat have joined hands only recently.

"It's tough to compare (Ancic with Paes). We have just come
together (as doubles partners). He (Ancic) is a great player, a top ten player
in singles (Ancic is currently ranked 11th)," Bhupathi said.
The Indian star also recalled the bronze medal play-off loss in combination with Paes against Ancic and his compatriot Ivan Ljubicic in the Athens Olympic Games two years ago.
"We had lost to Ancic and Ljubicic in the Olympics bronze medal play-off," said the Indian player who has ten Grand Slam men's doubles and mixed doubles titles under his belt.
Looking forward to the tournament, which is being promoted by his celebrity Management firm Globosport, Bhupathi hoped that the rains which have been lashing the city over the last week, stayed away.
"Rains willing, hopefully, we will get to see some tennis," he said.

Some 'Antic' Talk

PTI

MUMBAI, Sept 21: Mario Ancic feels that his decision to play in men's doubles events has benefited him by improving his game as well as helping him in his recovery process from a recent knee injury.
The 22-year-old Ancic, one of the big draws in next week's $3,80,000 Kingfisher Airlines ATP Tennis Open, had combined forces with Indian doubles ace Mahesh Bhupathi for the very first time in his career to lift the China Open in Beijing last week.
"Last week I played with Mahesh. We played really well. I did not play for seven weeks earlier because of my knee ligament injury. Playing doubles has helped me in the recovery process and has also improved my volleying," Ancic said.
"I have planned to play 10-15 doubles events next year, hopefully some of them with Mahesh as partner," said the Croat who became the youngest to win a match on Wimbledon's famed centre court after Swedish great Bjorn Borg.
Saying Bhupathi had influenced him to enter for the tournament in Mumbai organised by the former's marketing company Globosport, Ancic said the courts at the CCI were similar in nature to those he played on in Beijing recently and lost in the singles final in straight sets to Cypriot Marcos Baghtatis.
"The courts are more or less similar, but it's a lot more hot here than in Beijing. But I come from a warm place (Split)," he said. Ancic, who partnered compatriot Ivan Ljubicic to the bronze medal in the Athens Olympics two years ago at the cost of the Grand Slam-winning Indian pair of Bhupathi and Leander Paes, sounded very pleased over that performance and in helping his country Croatia to win the Davis Cup.
"I am proud of these two achievements. Not many players in the world can boast of similar feats," he said. Ancic, nicknamed 'Baby Goran' for his resemblance to the former Wimbledon champion Groan Ivanisevic, insisted that though he idolised his countryman, like the other current players of Croatia, but insisted his game was different.
"He (Ivanisevic) has been a big influence on me. I do talk to him and he advises me. We come from the country and place (Split). We all idolise him, but our games are different," Ancic said.
Ancic felt that the US Open champion duo of Paes and Martin Damm were the favourites for the doubles title in Mumbai and added he knew how good Mahesh was in doubles play after partnering him to the China Open crown.
"Paes and Damm are the favouries. Whether we meet them in the final here would depend on the draw. But I realised how great was Mahesh as a doubles player in Beijing," the 6-foot, 5-inch reed-thin Ancic said.
The Indo-Croat doubles partnership will split after the Mumbai tournament as Ancic would renew his combination with Belgian Olivier Rochus, who was his partner at the beginning of the year, he said.

The Mumbai Boy Speaks:

PTI

MUMBAI, Sept 21: India No 3 Karan Rastogi is geared up to take part as a wild card entrant in next week's $3,80,000 Kingfisher Airlines ATP Tennis Open and is thrilled to be rubbing shoulders with several big names in the tennis world during the event.
"I am excited to be playing the ATP event in my home town after having played in the ABN Amro qualifiers in Rotterdam and the Chennai Open. This tournament has an impressive and strong field. Perhaps, it is the strongest in India recently," the 19-year-old told reporters at the Cricket Club of India on Thursday.
"The wild card into the main draw (that he has received from the organisers) is motivational and I am looking forward to playing in the tournament," he said. Rastogi said he had improved as a player and become stronger too by putting on some weight.
"I have improved quite a bit, got a bit stronger and put on some weight. My serve has got better and I am looking forward to a great week here. I am happy with the way I am playing".
Indian Davis Cup coach and former national champion Nandan Bal also saw a lot of improvement in Rastogi's game and predicted that the Mumbai youngster is a future India No 1.
"It will be a great experience to play with the top boys in the game. Karan has put on more muscle on his body and can match these guys (physically). He has strong legs too. He needs to develop only match maturity. He's going to be our number one in future," Bal said. Bal said all he could teach Rastogi at this stage before the tournament was tactics and not technique.
"He's much better than what his world ranking (361) suggests. He has to string together four or five wins on-the-trot to improve it. All I can do with his game is make tactical correction and not technical correction.
"I am also looking forward to see other Indian players' performance in this tournament," he added. Rastogi, who has done training stints at the famous Nick Bollettieri Academy in the USA, said that the tournament would help him gain experience which would stand him in good stead to improve as a player.
"I am trying to break into the top 300. I know I can do better. Hopefully this experience will help me. I like hard courts, medium fast, like the ones here," the Mumbai player said.

Someone from Pune

MUMBAI, Sept 23:

Pune colt Akash Wagh was given a dream start to his fledgling career when he became the third wild card recipient for the $3,80,000 Kingfisher Airlines men's Tennis Open that is to commence at the cricket club of India on September 25.
Wagh, a trainee at Mahesh Bhupathi's tennis academy in Bangalore, has got the nod ahead of Indiano. 2 Harsh Mankad, Davis Cup player Prakash Amritraj, both of whom had expressed their inability to take part in the event due to different reasons, and better known youngsters like Vivek Shokeen, Sanam Singh and Jeevan Nedunchezhian.
Sanam and Jeevan had to go through the qualifying stage in which, by luck of the draw, they met each other in the very first round in which the former prevailed in three sets (3-6, 6-4, 4-1 (retired) to enter the second qualifying round.
Shokeen is not playing in the qualifiers even.
Tournament director Gaurav Natekar, who is also employed by tournament organisers globosport, was hard pressed to justify the granting of the third wild card, after having handed over the first two to India's no. 1 and no. 3 players Rohan Bopanna and Karan Rastogi, at the players' draw On Saturday. Mankad told us he cannot take part in the tournament due to personal reasons while Prakash has injured his wrist.
Akash is a very exciting talent. He's 16 and has already won the under-18 singles title at the Nationals held in Chennai. Very few have done so.
We thought he's well suited to get a wild card because of his young age and talent ahead of others who may be better but are also older, Natekar said.
Natekar also drew a parallel with Leander Paes, Ramesh Krishnan and Vijay Amritraj and said Wagh could go places like the others and that the tournament has given a huge opportunity for him to take advantage of with both hands.
Wagh is from Pune, Maharashtra and this tournament is happening in his backyard. He needs to take advantage of this opportunity, the former tennis player and contemporary of Paes said.