All eyes on Paes-Damm

At the tennis in Chennai, it doesn't get bigger than Leander Paes.

In what will be a long day for India at the Chennai Open, with four of the five Indians in the fray making an appearance on the opening day, it is India's perennial crowd-puller who will do the star act.

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2006 will begin for Paes with a new partner -- Martin Damm of the Czech Republic. Though both Paes and Damm are doubles specialists, they haven't paired with each other and the Indian is not jumping to any conclusions.

"We'll see how it works," said the 32-year-old.

While Paes is an old hat on the pro-tour, it will be a big day for India's up-and-coming players in the singles draw.

The Indian wild card entrants -- Prakash Amritraj and Vishal Uppal -- will begin their campaign on Monday and will have to play out of their skins to earn their first points of the year.

National grasscourt champion Uppal will take on seasoned Czech Jiri Vanek while Amritraj will face Brazil's Ricardo Mello, who surged to a career-high of 50 in 2005.

Rohan Bopanna was the only Indian who made it to the final qualifying round of the tournament, as Harsh Mankad and Somdev Verman lost their respective matches on Sunday.

Bopanna came back from a set down to beat top seed Danai Udomchoke of Thailand 4–6, 6-4, 6-2. The Indian lost the first set and made most of the struggling Udomchoke to claim the final set 6-2.

India's number one player Mankad though had to bow out of the tournament after losing 6-3, 5-7, 4-6 to Michael Kohlmann of Germany.

Somdev Verman was caught short of experience as he went down 3-5, 7-5, 3-6 to Michael Berrer.

Schedule, January 2

Centre Court: (starting at 1700 hrs)

Praksh Amritraj (India) vs Ricardo Mello (Brazil)
Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha)/ Radek Stepanek (Cze) vs Gilles Muller (Lux)/Cyril Saulnier (Fra)
Matin Damm (Cze)/Leander Paes (Ind) vs Ashley Fisher (Aus)/Justin Gimelstob (USA)
Jiri Vanek (Cze) vs Vishal Uppal (Ind)

Court 1: (starting at 1600 hrs)

Marc Giquel (Fra) vs Michael Kohlmann (Ger) (Q)
Rohan Bopanna (Ind) vs Rajeev Ram (USA) (Q)
Yeu-Tzuoo Wang (TPE) vs Kristof Vliegen (Bel)
Tomas Behrend (Ger) vs Marcos Daniel (Brazil)

Court 4: (starting at 1600 hrs)

Michael Berrer (Ger) vs Mariusz Frysternberg (Pol) (Q)
Ivan Navarro Pastor (ESP) vs Michal Mertinak (Svk) (Q)
Bjorn Phau (Ger) vs Bobby Reynolds (USA)
Thierry Ascione vs Simon Greul (Ger).