Apr 3 (1998) Notes

I got a note from Madras that someone has withdrawn and Leander is in as the last entry at the Goldflake Chennai Open ! .. That means he freed up one wildcard for the tournament organizers. I am not however expecting those tournament folks, who have so far shown hardly much regard for Indians, to give the free WC to Prahlad, however .. It will be a pity if they don't, and it will be to some extent a crime to do that in a tournament in India .. The guy can't even play the qualifiers over this weekend .. But these kinds of things happen in India (and probably only in India), as the ones who care least for Indians are often the Indians who are in positions of helping Indians .. Again, if they come through with a wildcard for Prahlad, I will be more than glad to eat my foot that I have planted firmly in my mouth (or crow, or whatever they want me to eat) .. Right now I am expecting the wildcards to go to some Australians.. At least Pat Cash retired a couple of weeks back; so we don't have to see him again in Chennai .. Wonder what guys like Stoltenberg and Fromberg are up to next week .. well, at least they are top-50 players .. I will go through the roof if I see a wildcard going to Draper, Tebbut or Tramacchi (nothing against those guys, but something about that happening in an INDIAN tournament, at the expense of an Indian Davis Cup player).

Apr 4 (1998) Notes

The Chennai tournament folks (IMG, Melbourne, Australia is the prime organizer; Brian Cooney, the tournament director is from there .. There are some Indians involved too :-)) announced recently that Becker, Rafter, Woodies, and Tillstrom will be allowed to play their first round matches on Wednesday (because they are all arriving tired and jetlagged from Davis Cup matches) .. Only 7 day tournaments are allowed to schedule first round matches as late as Wednesday .. As I had expected, I did not see a report that Mahesh would be allowed to take a day of rest after he gets there on Monday .. He probably would have played more tennis at the Davis Cup over this weekend than the others, but the "Bad-Karma Gang" probably will not notice that this Indian warrior is also tired and jetlagged, and will probably make him play Tuesday.

Yeah, I am whining a lot about this tournament, the only one in India .. I know .. But then I have some very strong feelings about Indians not standing up and demanding how things should be done in THEIR OWN place. If the tournament can raise over $1.0 Million for appearance fee alone, I do not see why Indians cannot organize this themselves (yes, it is not easy to buy a tournament with much more of cash and bring it over to any country, I know) .. As a matter of record: The ATP site lists tournament offices for over 80 ATP tournaments, and only four have offices outside the country where it is held. These are, Singapore (Office in Hong Kong), Tashkent (out of Israel), Dubai and Chennai (offices out in Australia). Is it a coincidence that I have complained here about wildcard issues at the 3 places among these where Indians have played over the year (Singapore, Dubai and Chennai) ? .. I think not. I don't want to sound as though I make so much of a big issue out of wildcards (LP or MB for instance wouldn't consider it a big deal) .. It is on grounds of some priciples that I object .. If every other tournament gives out wildcards based on merit and ATP rank and not nationality and crowd interest, then I will not complain, but that's not the case .. and so it bugs me that we have to beg for a wildcard for an Indian at Chennai. That's that .. I will stop harping on this ad nauseum, now .. and my offer to eat crow remains, if Prahlad is given one of the two remaining WCs at Chennai.

Apr 5 (1998) Note-1

Got a couple of emails asking if I hadn't heard of the other two wildcards given out at Chennai .. Yes, I had heard it soon after I posted my pre-emeptive tirade yesterday .. Was way too upset that I couldn't eat that delicious crow yesterday.

The "foreigners" gave it to a South African 19-year old (near #500 in the world), Wesley Whitehouse, and a German kid, Bjorn Phau (near #700 in ATP) .. The former is a talented upcoming youngster, and the latter is a member of the Mercedes developmental squad in Germany that Becker is in charge of .. Nice gesture to help kids, under normal circumstances, but I don't see this happening at other tournaments around the world. The organizers are simply blatant in their disregard for Indians needing an opportunity to play too .. Like there are some tournaments around the world where they allow Indian kids to get big-match practice.

So Becker gets to bring his German developmental squad player for practice in an ATP tourney .. Yeah .. Anybody can come to India and use the tournament there for these things .. How about Vijay Kannan or even Manoj Mahadevan, if developing young talent was the purpose ? .. And I suppose there are no Indians with any say in getting a wildcard for Prahlad Srinath playing for India and not even getting to play qualifiers (either that, or they are too callous or spineless, to do anything about it) ... It's a crime. It's a shame. It's a pity ..

Why do we bother with this damn tournament in India ? .. How can we protest ? .. I am personally ashamed that this kind of crap goes on in my home country .. More later.

Those who follow my notes here know that I rarely get vitriolic here .. But this one drives me mad ..

Can I ask the Indian Press (I know some of you read this page occasionally) to do something to bring out what's going on there ? .. The press has a responsibility to talk about this, rather than eat up the publicity releases they give out of the Gold-"flaky" tournament office. The Dubai Press was pretty outspoken about how Bernd Karbacher was given a wildcard there, instead of fan favorite, Leander Paes, thanks to what they reported as possible meddling by Mercedes, a big ATP sponsor and the German connection there. What has the Indian Press got on the Chennai situation ? (I do not want to slander anybody, and imply that there are indeed things going on, but perhaps the press can say something, if they know).

Apr 6 (1998) Note-3

Here are some excerpts from S.K.John's article in today's Indian Express:

And, if a player like Srinath has to match Gaudenzi, he's got to play at least at the Tour level. For that he has to have enough points. To gain points he has to travel. If he has to travel, he has to have money. Now, where will that come from? If a player like Paes has been struggling for eight years before he could make a mark on the Tour, the likes of Srinath have to put in much more effort.Where is the support to put in that effort? A case in point is the Gold Flake Open which began in Chennai today. Bhupathi is the only Indian to get in with a wild card. In other countries, wild cards are first given to players of the host nation. Here, both Srinath and Fazaluddin lost out because the organisers didn't want unsung Indians on the main draw. .. Apparently, one wild card has gone to a South African with a lot of promise! This means that the two Davis Cuppers lost out on playing the qualifying and the wild cards, thus depriving them of an opportunity to play the Tour event. The two matches here would have given Srinath tremendous confidence, but where does he go from here? May be, to his hometown Mysore to go through the motion of hitting tennis balls .. Sure, his morale went for a toss after he was informed here that he was not among the wild cards at Chennai. But he is hoping that he will get a wild card at least at the Vadodara Challenger! After that, he intends to play in the European clay court circuit and the American hard court. ``I should not give up so fast,'' he says.

Take a look at the tournament website: http://www.goldflakeopen.com .. The players page still does not list Bhupathi or Paes .. Now, this website is made by an Indian firm, mind you .. And there are numerous supposedly funny comments on that site about Indian railways' punctuality, etc. Show me websites in other places around the world where they talk bad about the place, even jokingly .. Some of these attitudes run way too deep.. Again, I better stop. This is a tennis site, after all.

Apr 8 (1998) Note-1

No news on today's matches yet from Madras. That tournament website is still a mess. It has been 2-3 days and they still cannot put some scores up in a timely fashion. Why promise score updates and then not a have anything ? .. The scoreboard page shows two lines with player 1 and player 2 and space for scores in FIVE sets, with of course, no numbers .. Jeez, people .. how shoddy can you get ? .. Last night for a short period, there were some results in one page, but it showed players like Burgsmuller beating himself ! .. The web Gurus know too much HTML and can never make it work. Type the damn scores in ASCII and just put the bloody thing up. Some of us are sick of making phone calls to Madras to get scores (and the tournament office promises faxes of results and none arrives .. even the good scores sites like ESPN and Yahoo which show updates from everywhere with reasonable delay have so far not been showing the Chennai results till very late in the day .. and someone not informing the world is probably the reason) .. Thanks for fanclub members who help with some of this .. Now that I am on a tirade against the tournament website too, where the hell are the names Bhupathi and Paes on the players list page ? .. what does it take for the Indian company running that website to show some pride in India's own players ? .. These may sound like nit-picking, but they reveal some deep-rooted attitudinal problems when so many such things happen .. Oh Lord, how shameful ! (.. and I do feel bad for attacking an Indian tournament so much, but do they give us a choice ?..)

OK, here is another press report, from The Telegraph, Calcutta : " .. Leander cruised through 6-2, 6-2 and will next meet the winner of the Jerome Golmard-Wesley Whitehouse clash. In the process, the Indian No. 1 not only entered the second round of the tournament for the first time but also scored a point for his fellow-countryman, Prahlad Srinath and Syed Fazaluddin .. Both these young Davis Cuppers, who did duty in Genoa, could not have come here in time for the qualifying rounds and had asked for wild cards. Mahesh Bhupathi was granted one of the three on offer, but his team-mates were denied wild cards on the logic that they were not good enough to deserve such generosity .. Instead, IMG — which owns the event in India — obliged Phau simply because he was from Boris Becker’s academy. It was left to Leander to ‘reveal’ how ridiculous that decision had been. " .. Thanks, The Telegraph ! .. Go for it .. Take them to task.
 
 

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OK, Off to the next year .......
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Mar 29 (1999) Note-1

It's time for the annual dog-and-pony show in Madras .. Just got word from Sweden (thanks!) that Andreas Vinciguerra, 18 yr-old Swedish player, has been given a wildcard to the Chennai Open starting next Monday .. You may remember me mentioning him a few months back as I heard that he was considering going to India for our satellites/futures earlier .. He was a top-10 junior player last year, and many consider him the next big talent from Sweden .. Nothing against him, but seriously, what the hell is up with the Chennai tounament organizers ? .. Does anybody care about our own national players, who will be at Davis Cup and unable to even play the qualifiers ? .. This means bye-bye to the Chennai Open once again for our #4 Fazaluddin .. I am sure Mahesh will get one wildcard, and I don't know about who gets the third wildcard - will the Australians who run the show (and the spineless Indians who say "yessir") give the remaining one to our #3 Srinath ? .. Don't hold your breath - they can easily give it to somebody else and we will all just sit and watch .. Jesus, this tournament makes me wild every year .. In case you are wondering, only tournaments in small countries with no real players ever give WCs to foreigners (and rarely to anyone not in the top-100) .. Show me a foreign tournament that gave a wildcard to Leander when he was #1 in the world juniors, and you know why I get mad about this .. [Heck, if you *have to* give it to a junior talent, give it to Pakistan's Aisam or Thailand's Paradorn, and I would at least feel we are helping those in Asia, who nobody else cares for] ..

Last year we gave wildcards to guys like Wesley Whitehouse and Brian Phau (#300 and #421after a year - not exactly setting tour on fire - either of them) .. Our press did not write seriously about this last year, except for one article I saw then - I hope they do better this time .. I feel bad about criticizing the only world series tournament in India, but do we have a choice ?

I hope Andreas does well - all the best to him, but I feel sad for Fazal .. Andreas is ranked #494 from 10 tournaments and Fazal is ranked #574 from 12 tournaments .. The Indian lost out (he could have certainly used the few thousand dollars for playing in the tournament) .. Neither may have any big chance to win anything, but playing the top players is something that helps build one mentally .. Andreas has played one big tournament this year, the Copenhagen Open, where he lost 1-6, 3-6 to Nicklas Kulti .. Fazal has never played a big tournament .. He will be at Calcutta playing Davis Cup next weekend (he missed qualies at Chennai last year too, because of Davis Cup in Italy), and will sit and mull over rejection from his own country's tournament, for a week - unless they give him a wildcard for doubles .. I had heard that Mahesh was trying to help and get Fazal a good player as partner if they would give a doubles wildcard - no idea what is the latest on that ..

Again, I have not seen the official announcement of the wildcards in the news yet .. So, take the above as unconfirmed info for now.

I will write about other things later .. Right now I am too upset.

Mar 29 (1999) Note-2

Here is more incredible stuff out of Madras - today's PTI wire report says (excerpts), Pete Sampras, who regained his #1 spot this week from Carlos Moya, faces the prospect of losing it again to the latter, unless he chooses to play in the Gold Flake Open .. Moya is the top seed here and it would be enough if he reaches the semifinal here to regain the coveted rank, tounament director Brian Cooney told PTI .. There are no other tounrmanet on hand, in view of Davis Cup during the first week of April .. Sampras' entry even at the last minute will not be a problem as wildcards will be decided only after spotting the qualifiers on April 3rd and 4th, said Brian Cooney .. Chennai has generated a lot of interest as the cutoff for it is 131 ATP points (sic), just three short of a grand slam, Cooney said, adding that last year it was 189 points (sic) ..

This is released to the press for public consumption, I guess .. This man Mr. Cooney, must think that Indian tennis fans are all just absolute star-struck fools ! .. Hello, Sampras to Chennai ? .. Give me a break ! - they can't even get him to play Australian Open .. And where does he come up with that blatant piece of misinformation that it is the only tournament next week ? .. There are three tournaments next week (Salem Open in Hong Kong and Estoril Open in Portugal are also there - it's actually one of only 9 weeks when there are more than two tournaments this year!) .. Wildcards are not decided ? .. Then what's this I am hearing from Sweden ? .. And that stuff about "only three spots below Grand Slams" is just simply outrageous .. This tournament had the lowest cutoff of any tournament with over $400K prize money last year, and though 131 is better than 189 (and by the way, they are ranks, not points - PTI mistake, perhaps) it's still one of the lowest cutoffs anywhere .. Most tournaments, by the way, have draws closing much above grand slams (which close between 105 and 115) - this is well-known to most readers here I am sure, and it's because there are only 32 spots in other tournaments and grand slams have 128 !! .. Holy Molly ! .. Can you believe this kind of blatant hype ? .. What does he think Indians are ? .. Like we all fell off the turnip truck yesterday and found this game called "tennis" when these international money-grabbing sports conglomorates came to India ? .. Huh ? .. And why is PTI giving this crap publicity ? ..

I know you are all thinking - "Come on Jay, Give it a break!" .. But, how can I stop laughing when I see that stuff above ?

Mar 31 (1999) Note-2

I hear from India that the foreigners in the tournament office in Chennai are claiming to have decided nothing about the wildcards and they would do so only on Friday, but my sources from abroad tell me that a wildcard was promised to the Swedish kid, Andreas Vinciguerra, months ago ! .. Sounds oh-so-like what they did last year with Brian Phau and Wesley Whitehouse - like drop the news on us in the last minute, so there is no time for anybody to respond .. Sneaky foreigners .. Come on guys, speak the truth, will you ? .. Oh, but then again, perhaps they still have not decided - what if Sampras wants to play in the last minute (chuckle, chuckle) as the tournament director said in his press release (see Mar 29 Note-2 below) .. :-) :-)

If they had to do this kind of stuff to get Johansson and Tillstrom, God save them, and this tournament .. Anyway, why is news on these things known in Sweden, and Indians are blissfully unaware ? .. International Money-Grabbers!..

My offer, as always, to eat crow and say "kowtow" if this all comes to naught in the end.

Mar 31 (1999) Note-3

Today's press release from Brian Cooney, the ring-master of the Chennai circus of absurdity - after another bit of hype on how Moya could become number-1 after Chennai, the PTI wire continues - "According to Cooney, the Chennai Open has almost acquired the status of a grand slam as the cutoff for players is 131 ATP points (sic)" .. When will this man Cooney stop this nonsense ? .. Can somebody tell PTI to learn a thing or two about tennis reporting ? .. What the heck is going on ? .. Are these people all out of their minds ? .. Drives me wild to see Indians eating up this crap from a foreigner who thinks he can throw whatever bones at us .. But then again I shouldn't blame Cooney - I am sure a newspaper or two in India will publish that wire news today too.

No, I am no "Bharat-great-Swadeshi-only-Videshi-out" fanatic or anything .. After all, I am not even in India, and normally a pretty mild person .. I'm just someone who finds the arrogance of these foreigners in thinking they can get away with anything in India, a bit too hard to take .. And I find it even tougher to understand the "we trust you - your word is bible, sir" attitude of some folks in India, a country that paid for the conniving foreigners' rule for centuries .. Heck, if Brian Cooney and his cronies are making money from this tournament (I doubt they would be in India if they were losing money!), it's the money from Indian sponsors .. I would hope that at least they would demand better integrity from the tournament office of the event they sponsor .. So far no such indication.

The wire news continues with another bit for local consumption - "Vinod Sridhar has obtained a wildcard for the qualifying rounds" .. Oh, almighty how magnanimous - making him play for three weeks in a domestic circuit to reach that promised land of qualifiers .. And the main draw wildcards go to Swedish kids (or South African or German, or whatever) over Indian Davis Cuppers .. And our national championship runner-up from two weeks back, Nitin Kirtane, probably still is sweating it to see if he would get a wildcard to the qualies .. And for all I know, there are tons of hangers-on in Madras who are not even aware of any of this, and find the Aussie "Sahibs" who run the tournament so very nice ..

Apr 1 (1999) Note-1

I had an email yesterday from an Indian press correspondent (I will *not* release the name!), who agreed with my continuing crusade for truth in advertising and basic integrity from the Chennai tournament office folks .. Regarding whether the Indian press would be able to do anything, the email says, "I doubt anything would come out, because things are very well controlled in Chennai as far as the Gold Flake Open is concerned. They seem to know a trick or two about handling the media there. .. I doubt whether a word would appear in print in protest about the happenings in terms of wildcards etc .. I also hate this subservient attitude. I do love my country and am proud to be an Indian, as anybody else. But I am repeatedly reminded that this is a third world country, because of many third rate people .. We can't change it so easily, though we may set ourselves very high standards in whatever field that we pursue .. Basically, IMG is taking away all the profit, and they want to treat this tournament as something Godsent for the people of Chennai. It is good to have a great event, but glamour is not everything" .. Very well put, I must say .. Tough to disagree with the email, and even tougher to fathom the fact that Indian people are the ones helping the foreigners keep the Indian press under some control .. Anyway, I also heard that one reporter did follow up and get something out in print today (though nothing seems to be in the online editions yet) about the Swedish kid being promised a wildcard, something apparently the tourney office claims as "false information" .. Yeah, Right! .. I know that the "false info" has also appeared online in Sweden, and I had my sources .. I did not just start this out of the blue .. I believe the word has also reached Calcutta about this - hope Fazal isn't too upset .. He has reasons to be, though - the best way to show it would be to take it all out on the Chinese, on court!

It's funny that it's all about a tennis tournament, though .. I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea - no, this is not a life-or-death issue like the war in Kosovo .. Neither will Indian tennis just wither away because the Aussies in Chennai hate giving wildcards to Indians .. I am upset, and so are a few others, only because of some basic principles and attitudes involved here, which may not have much to do with tennis as such.

Apr 2 (1999) Note-2

Doubles is scheduled for 12 am today at Calcutta, but before I go back to tennis reporting later, would you all mind if I call some people some names ? .. I almost never do that here, but I just have to -

Brian Cooney, and others who run the Chennai tournament are lying, cheating conniving little foreigner low-lifes who should be ashamed of themselves. ..

They announced the wildcards today, and they went to Mahesh Bhupathi, Jonathan Stark (#348, USA) and Andreas Vinciguerra (#421, SWE) .. Yeah right, wasn't it the media guy (Australian, what else?) who said to the press who called him two days back that the Swedish news I have been saying for the last 6 days was "false information" and nothing had been decided ?? .. Watch when exactly the players with the wildcards arrive in the city - if they had not been told early enough, why would they skip quals and show up only during the weekend - I even knew when one of them was flying in, by the way, and that he had been told months in advance .. Do they have any shame at all in Chennai ? .. Liars.

What is absolutely pathetic is that they can't even get a top-200 player to give a wildcard to ! .. They must have been looking all around for anybody with white skin from abroad to give a wildcard to, and could only come up with Jonathan Stark !! .. Are you kidding me ? .. These Cooney cronies are absolutely incredible .. Anyway, Srinath and Fazal will just watch stuff on TV once again.

This is what Brian Cooney said today - "It is always to watch exciting young prospects taking their first steps on the international circuit. (sorry sir, I like to see Fazal or Srinath take a step - many Indians do) .. This is a perfect time for an event like the Gold Flake Open to foster new relationships with young overseas players" (oh boy, we really do want to see white overseas skin, don't we? .. It's so important to get such "relationships") such as Andreas because they do remember the good deeds awarded to them .. They are so much more likely to return to tournaments that have treated them well as they make the break through to the upper levels of the sport" .. Yeah right, professional tennis players really do reward tournament offices - what great rewards are Jonathan Stark going to give us, I wonder .. How many of the 4 players they gave a total of over a million dollars (reportedly) last year to come to Madras "rewarded" them with return darshans ? .. This tournament has perhaps the worst record of getting any top player to return!

Does anybody in India have the guts to stand up to these guys ? .. Vijay Amritraj ? .. Ramesh Krishnan ? .. Where are you all ? .. I see both being mentioned prominently at the tournament website .. I am sure both are rather diplomatic in these things and may not want to get into any serious stuff, but I really don't know who can at least tell these foreigners that what they are doing is just pinning daggers into the hearts of our own Indian players, not to mention our pride as Indians .. It eats me up .. Doesn't it do that to anybody out there ? .. AITA really are silent spectators - I have never heard they have any control in anything .. But for the Indian spectators missing out on seeing them in action, I would have liked to even see LP and MB make a statement and skip the doubles in protest .. It may be difficult to get the spectators to hold a placard or two in protest - I don't think much of this is going out in the press either, though some reporters have been aware of the crimes, as editorial desks seem to be getting cold-feet in kicking up any storm from what I hear .. Where is the "fiercely independent" Indian press in exposing the Chennai shenanigans ? .. Doesn't any of the indian sponsors, ITC, etc, who help the International Money-Grabbers to make profits, care about this ? .. I guess not.

It's possible that they had to cut deals involving wildcards to get some top players to come - and they would give that as a reason .. The question is, why don't tournaments in other places never do this kind of blatantly unjust deals involving wildcards ? - because the tournament organizers know there are limits to how far they can go, and that the people in those places will stand up and ask them to explain.

If those of you who are wondering whether this kind of screaming injustice is done at other tournaments, I suggest that you take a look at the archived draws at Steve Gocha's site and show me one tournament anywhere last year where the wildcards were handed out to such lowly-ranked foreign players .. No, I am not saying these things without watching things rather closely .. Even at the couple of other tournaments run by people other than from the home country (Tashkent, Dubai, Singapore, etc) this was not done .. Only in India can they get away with this .. Brian Cooney knows it, and we Indians facilitate that .. Wildcards by themselves are not all that important - both Fazal and Srinath are really long-shots to get an upset win in the main draw (but both could use the experience and the $4K from playing), though so are Stark and Vinciguerra who got the WCs .. As I said before, what upsets me is the attitudes that cause this to happen. It's on the basis of some principles that I protest.

But then again, there are probably people in India who still believe that Gandhiji was wrong in starting "Quit India" against the Britishers! .. That's our attitude .. We would rather worship the foreign skin and gladly take the small prasadams they give us .. When will it get better ? ..

Apr 3 (1999) Note-1

As for our continuing crusade against exposing the lies and underhanded dirty tricks from the Chennai Gold Flaky tournament - I am glad to see that so far articles have appeared in today's The Hindu, Indian Express and the online rediff-news .. Hopefully we will see other newspapers writing on it soon .. The Hindu actually surprised me, publishing the story, they being the official newspaper of the tournament .. I say, more power to you! .. The good thing is that everybody have clear proof now, as they all mention Craig Gabriel, the media man there - he was the one who blatantly replied that it was "false information" about Andreas Vinciguerra, barely two days before they actually announced it [but don't blame Mr. Gabriel - he may just be the mouthpiece of the whole stinking group of conniving low-lifes] .. Talk about putting the foot and everything up to the knee firmly inside your mouth! .. The newspaper reports also mention that the news was known to the IMG agent in Sweden way ahead of anyone in India .. Good job by the press - but even more scathing attacks are in order against these foreigners who think we are all fools .. I guess it's their tournament and they can do whatever the hell they want to, but they shouldn't think we don't notice all the shameless shenanigans - and they should know that it's mostly Indian sponsors' money they are playing with .. I wish I were in Madras, to get a ticket and go in with a placard saying, "Where is Srinath ? Where is Fazal ? .. This tournament is not for foreign kids' practice" !! ..

By the way, as a side note, I should repeat that I hope Andreas does do well .. He is said to be a good kid, and he is not the one who is behind all this .. Nothing against the boy ..