Nadal, Nalbandian to be the stars in a strong field

Chennai, Nov 30 (UNI) With a whiff of strong talent clawing at their heels in the race for the title and kick starting the new season on ATP World Tour, top seed Rafael Nadal and second seed David Nalbandian will be the stars at the 2007 Chennai Open to be held here from January 1 to 7.

Two seasoned warhorses, who have by now become synonymous with Chennai Open, Nadal's compatriot Carlos Moya and Thai Paradorn Srichaphan will be there again. Moya presently ranked 40, and out of the Tour in 2006, will have another go at the singles title. Moya set a record of sorts here being the only player to have defended his title emerging the winner in 2004 and 2005. Last year, however, he bowed out to Croat Ivan Ljubicic in the final. But Ljubicic's name does not figure in the main draw this time and whether he gets a wild card, remains to be seeen.

The other seasoned campaigner, the irrepressible Paradorn Srichaphan, although unlucky not to win here so far is a huge hit with the crowds on the centre court. The Thai is currently ranked 53, was the runner up in 2003.

''It's the best field so far'', said advisor to IMG, the event manager Ravi Krishnan, announcing the field at a press conference here.

Backing up his claim is the fact that the line up incules nine players who are or have been in the top 50 ATP Tour rankings in 2006 and as many as 18 players in the top 100.

Mr Ravi said Nadal and Nalbandian, the latter a semi-finalist this year at the Shanghai Masters, would also have to reckon with third seeded Belgian Xavier Mailsse, who was here earlier as a 15 year-old qualifier, Frenchman Julien Benneteau, seeded no 4. Stefan Koubek of Austria, though ranked 80, would be another strong contender, having been the semi finalist in the Mumbai edition of the ATP tour event which made its debut this year.

Mr Ravi Krishnan said, the qualifying rounds to spot the four qualifiers for the main draw would be held from December 30. The wild cards however, would be announced in the run up to the event. However, in keeping with the tradition for this ATP tour event, Indian players would be given the priority in consultation with the All India Tennis Association (AITA). ''Indians will constitute 90 per cent of the wild cards as has been the tradition here'', he added.

About the Indian presence in the 2007 Open, Mr Ravi Krishnan said Mahesh Bhupathi has confirmed his participation in the doubles.

But his partner would be known only later.

Leander Paes has to decide between coming back to Chennai Open or serving the country in the Hopman Cup in Perth during the same week, India have qualified for the main competition by winning the first Asian edition of the Cup in Hyderabad last Sunday, he said.

The total prize money has been increased to 416,000 dollar, he said and added like last year the Chennai Open would also be used to promote the Chennai city as an investment destination especially in IT, through the telecasts of the matches.

BSNL have come in as a new sponsor, adding to the consortium of sponsors arranged by the Tamil Nadu government for the 11th edition since being launched as Gold Flake Open in 1996.

The singles main draw-player field for Chennai Open 2007 is as follows (Qualifiers and Wild Cards to be announced later): Rafael Nadal (Spain), David Nalbadian (Argentina), Xavier Malise(Belgium), Julien Benneteau(France), Carlos Moya(Spain), Fabrice Santoro(France), Paradorn Srichaphan(Thailand), Nicolas Mahut(France), Bjorn Phau(Germany), Stefan Koubek(Austria), Simon Greul(Germany), Kristian Pless(Denkark), Robert Kendrick(USA), Yen-Hsun Lu (Taipei), Igor Andreev(Russia), Rainer Schuettler (Germany), Ivo Karlovic(Croatia), Olivier Patience(France), Kevin Kim(USA), Danai Udomchoke(Thailand), Thiago Alves(Brazil), David Sanguinetti (Italy), Alejandro Falla(Columbia), Telmuraz Gabashvili (Russia) and Oliver Marach.

UNI