Pioline, Kafelnikov favourites

Chennai, Jan 2: Defending champion Byron Black of Zimbabwe sported a huge smile when the lots were picked for the main draw of the ATP Gol...

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Chennai, Jan 2: Defending champion Byron Black of Zimbabwe sported a huge smile when the lots were picked for the main draw of the ATP Gold Flake Open tennis tournament at the Nungambakkam stadium here on Sunday afternoon. He drew a qualifier in the first round.

But quite certainly, Black would have heeded Vijay Amritraj’s observation that the 32-man field looked wide open, and, under the circumstances, any prediction would hold good only on paper.

Quite obviously, the top two seeds, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the 25-year old world No 2 from Russia, and French Davis Cupper Cedric Pioline, No 14 in the world, start favourites. But Black would enjoy the advantage of playing in familiar conditions, though he did put in a jestful request for a heater, in reference to the comparitively cooler weather here.

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When Black won the title last year, the tournament was played in April when the heat and humidity were quite intense. The Zimbabwaen seemed to enjoy such testing conditions.

The week-long event, beginning at 5pm on Monday, and offering a prize-money of Rs 1.89 crore, has attracted three players in the 1-25 bracket and nine within 100. No surprises, as the Open, for the second year running, was adjudged the `Best Promoted’ ATP event in the world.

Like Black, Pioline too has drawn a qualifier in the first round, while Kafelnikov plays Michael Tabara of Czech Republic who is ranked 125.The other star of the tournament, Carlos Moya of Spain, who briefly enjoyed the No 1 spot on the Tour last season, has since been struggling to regain the form as his ranking has slid to 22 which earned him the third position in the seeding list here. Moya was a let-down last year when he pulled out owing to injury.

Moya has been placed in the bottom half of the draw which includes Pioline, sixth seeded Laurence Tieleman of Italy (89) and No 8 seed Andreas Vinciguerra of Sweden (99).

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In the top half, a Black vs Kafelnikov semi-final clash is a near certainty. Kafelnikov should have a clear run to the semis while Black needs toovercome a potential threat in the fourth-seeded Jerome Golmard of France, ranked No 38. The 26-year old Golmard played only half of the 1999 season and beat Moya twice.

Wild card Leander Paes, ranked 145, plays Julien Boutter of France (137) with the winner likely to run into Pioline.

The other Indian in the main draw, Sunil Kumar, the 16-year old National hard court champion from Kapurthala, is put down to meet the oldest player in the tournament, Ronald Agenor of Haiti who, at 35, is attempting to resurrect his sagging career. Agenor was in the 600s at one time, but finished 1999 at 94.

Being the first ATP event of the new millenium, along with those in Doha and Adelaide (being run on the same dates), the Gold Flake Open enjoys an added significance. Additionally, the event will kick-start the race for the No 1 spot based on the new points system to decide the No 1 in the world at the end of the year.

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INDIANS BOW OUT IN QUALIFIERS: For the second year in a row, Indians could not make anyimpression and bowed out in the qualifying rounds on Sunday.

Sixteen Indians were in the fray, 12 went out in the first round and the rest in the second. The four final qualifiers will be spotted tomorrow.Prahlad Srinath, ranked 310, went down to top-200 player Jamie Delgado of Great Britain in the second round after putting up a reasonable fight.

Delgado prevailed 6-3, 6-4. India No 4 Syed Fazaluddin got a tough draw, running into top seed Jiri Vanek (Czech) and went down quickly in the first round, 2-6 2-6.

Nitin Kirtane came close to taking a set off fifth seed Ishii Yaoki but faltered and lost his way. It was a no-show for rest of the Indians.

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Qualifying results (prefix denotes seeding)
(2nd round): 1-Jiri Vanek (Czech) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-0 6-2; 2-Jamie Delgado (GBr) bt Prahlad Srinath (Ind) 6-3 6-4; 3-Tuomas Ketola (Finn) bt Sander Groen (Neth) 6-3 3-0 (conceded); 4-Martin Spottl (Austria) bt Denis Golovanov (Rus) 6-3 6-1; 5-Ishii Yaoki (Jap) bt Nitin Kirtane (Ind) 7-5 6-1; 6-BarryCowan (GBr) bt Ivanov Smolensky Kir (Rus) 6-3 6-3; Andy Ram (Israel) bt 7-Arvind Parmar (GBR) 6-1, 7-5; 8-Eyal Ran (Israel) bt Kamalakannan (Ind) 6-1 6-2; (1st Round): Vanek bt Syed Fazaluddin (Ind) 6-2 6-2; Delgado bt Avinash Arun (India) 6-2 6-2; Ketola bt Jayant Sood (US) 6-0 6-0; Spottl bt Manoj Mahadevan (Ind) 6-1, 6-4; Yaoki bt Sandeep Kirtane (Ind) 6-2 6-3; Cowan bt Vishal Uppal (Ind) 6-0 6-4; Parmar bt Rajkumar Gopalan (Ind) 6-1 6-0; Ran bt Della Piana Sandro (Swiss) 6-3 6-1; Vijay Kannan bt Syed Saif (Ind) 6-3 1-0 (conceded); Ram bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 6-2 6-2; Srinath bt Saurav Panja (Ind) 6-1 6-3; Kamalakannan bt Vijayendra Laad (Ind) 6-4 7-5; Groen bt Akshay Vishal Rao (Ind) 6-2 6-1; Nitin Kirtane bt Rishi Sridhar (Ind) 6-4 7-6 (7); Golovanov bt Rohan Bopanna (Ind) 7-5 6-3; Smolensky Kir bt Justin Layne (GBr) 6-0, 7-5.