An event with a lot of smoke but little fire

otherwise would not have access to. No doubt, Becker was a flop after all the high expectations he generated, but his very participation brought people flocking to the magnificent Nungambakkam Stadium.

Becker was in such a poor physical shape that he could barely sustain himself for a little over a set. The blond German did trot out with an explanation that he was undone by the prevailing weather conditions, but thenhe owed it to his legion of fans a little more effort than he put in.

Hopefully, the organisers in future will take care to invite players of current standing, like Patrick Rafter who, though not fully recovered from a bout of virus infection, lifted the Open with a truly classy performance. But, from the marketing point of view, Rafter is no Becker. However, it would be unbecoming if quality is sacrificed in the name of “packaging” the event.

If one scratches the surface of sentiment, it will become obvious that with just one top-10 player in the draw, there was a marketing need for a celebrity, even if he was on his last legs, tennis-wise. Thus, a panting and puffing Becker came to Chennai, made the right kind of noises which left just about everyone breathless, played a couple of quality shots and departed after a second round defeat to a comparative non-entity.

Becker’s presence cast a shadow on the likes of Rafter and Mikael Tillstrom who, though being a defending champion, was, quite shockingly,kept out of the Centre Court for two rounds for no fault of his. The Swede shrugged off the faux pas by reaching the final before losing to Rafter.

From India’s point of view, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi provided all the fireworks, if only in doubles. Leander, in the eye of needless controversy over skipping the Davis Cup tie against Italy, played well enough to make it to the semi-finals where he ran into Rafter. His doubles triumph with Bhupathi was earned as the pair was pushed and had to fight virtually for every point.

If anything, big-time tennis has come to stay in India, and the indications were that the ITC, with the experience of two Opens behind them, would be fine-tuning the programme and pump in more quality (and money, of course) for the 1999 edition.

The sponsors would have had reasons enough to term the event as a success. They achieved one of their professed objectives of rekindling tennis awareness and interest among the masses. The large turnout each day was a testimony to thesupport the tournament received.

All the more reason why the Open must grow not only as a marketing project, but also as a sporting spectacle.