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.

Apr 7 Note-3

The Indian newspapers are hyping up Boris Becker like nobody's business. I wonder if the Indian fans and the newspaper reporters who throng Becker know what happened between Leander and Becker at Stuttgart last October and what exactly were the words Becker used that was reported in the Indian magazines then (.. let me just say that I was a long-time Becker fan who lost all respect for him then .. Let me not get into the sordid details). Anyway, here is a piece from today's Indian Express by Anand Philar: Now that he (Becker) is in Chennai, just about everyone is hoping that he would make it to the final, and yes, even win the trophy. At least then, one can rejoice that one partook in a historic event of witnessing a typical Becker triumph in where else, but the "home" of Indian tennis ... Can anything be more satisfying and fitting? If only wishes could come true. .. Ah.. Give me a break ! .. How about our own Leander winning the whole thing which would probably involve a win over Becker too .. That won't be "satisfying" ?? .. What in the world is going on out in Chennai ?? .. What is with all this hype from every corner ? .. By the way, not everyone will agree with the hype that Chennai is the undisputed home of Indian tennis either .. Take a look at how many Davis Cuppers have come from Calcutta .. That city also has some serious claims.

Apr 6 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.

Makes me want to cry to read that about Prahlad's morale going for a toss after the rejection he got from the only ATP tournament in his own country, right when he was getting ready for sweating it out in the Davis Cup for India .. Right after he moved his ranking up from 1000 to 530 in about 5 months .. And now the Indian #3 is not even sure that he will get a wildcard into the Vadodara challenger .. That is how far we have sunk .. I repeat, somebody needs to get to the bottom of how Prahlad was denied a wildcard to the Chennai tournament. The more I feel I should not continue to talk about this, the more I feel somebody has to. I have been getting emails from people similarly shocked and upset at what has been done to one of India's own. Can someone take a few banners in there to the Nungambakkam stadium saying "Why no Prahlad ? .. Tournaments in India are not for match practice for unknown foreign kids!" .. The Indians who stood and watched this happening, or were part of the wildcard decisions, should be ashamed of themselves ! .. Pitiful .. One would think a nation that has been exploited for centuries by foreigners would learn.  But not really, I guess.

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 5 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 4 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 3 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).