It's action again on the courts as stars arrive

Chennai, Dec 29 (UNI) The smell of fresh paint, the sound of the ball being hit off the middle of the racquet from the baseline, publicity hoardings at vintage points, gleaming Mercedes players' cars gliding past curious onlookers... the action is back again on the picturesque Centre and the side courts as the curtain goes up on the 12th edition of ATP World Tour Chennai Open 2007 beginning with the qualifying rounds here tomorrow.

There was excitement all over as hardened tennis fans at the stadium watching some of the players who had already arrived, learnt about the arrival of the star of them all Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the world no 2.

Nadal would be making his first apprerance here as he had to pull out last year due to injury. With Nadal, his fellow countryman, and two time champion and last year's runner up Carlos Moya too arrived, followed by the Thai Paradorn Shrichaphan, a great draw with the crowds. Another star world no 8 David Nalbandian of Argentina is expected over the next two days along with the other players in the main draw.

Already the another favourite Julein Benneteau of France ranked 40, Bjorn Phau of Germany, Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, ranked 98 and the player who had slammed down the maximum of 15 aces in a match in 2006, have been getting a feel of the synthetic courts at the stadium in the last two days.

While the first round of the qualifying matches would be held tomorrow and on December 31, the draw for the singles maindraw of 32 would be made tomorrow afternoon.

The sale of tickets has touched a new high in the last 12 years of the competition here, thanks to the strong field assembled headed by the likes of Nadal and Nalbandian. But the event managers, IMG are also keeping up the hype with online contests to pick a few fans to spend time with the top stars and world wide live telecast of the matches-143 countries.

However, the only disappointment for the fans would be the withdrawal of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati, the once champion doubles pair, who shot to limelight here with their first ATP doubles title in 1997, and then went on to achieve a hat trick(1998, '99) and winning another in 2002 before permanantly parting ways on the ATP Tour.

The Indian challenge will be in the hands of wild cards Prakash Amritraj and Karan Rastogi and qualifiers, if any.

The main draw will begin on the New Year day preceded by the traditional 'kids play with stars' programme on December 31 evening.

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