Day 1 - Recap

Wednesday 21st Sept -

9 am - Ayaz Vasi has pulled out of this week's AATP PRO AM Masters after his
wife's grandfather passed away in Surat. Ayaz had to rush to Surat
yesterday and will not be back in Mumbai until Saturday evening. The
AATP family extends condolences to Ayaz, Ashifa and his family.

9:30 AM - Top seed Haresh Ramchandani is reportedly suffering from a severe cold
and has requested tournament organizers for a late start. Haresh was
expected to take the courts on Wednesday for his round robin matches
but has now requested that his matches be moved to Thursday or Friday
to give him sufficient time to recover.

10-30 AM - Doctors have given Suvir Shah a clean chit after an examination of his
injured ankle this morning. Suvir injured his ankle ten days ago while
playing at MSLTA with school friend Nimesh and has not picked up a
racket since then. But he is raring to go after being given the green
signal by the docs. Suvir is placed in Group A along with
chaddi-buddies Nimesh and Haresh and is expected to play Nimesh later
this evening. Also in his group are Dr. Malpani (NOT the doctor who
examined him), Siddharth Singh Rathore and Phillips Eapen.

12-10 PM - Siddharth Singh Rathore, better known as Daman within the AATP
fraternity, has decided to play this week's AATP Masters using Rafael
Nadal's Babolat racket after cracking his Wilson frame, made popular
by Roger Federer. Siddharth explained to our reporters that he has
been thinking about switching rackets for some time now and this
switch has nothing to do with the switch in on-court fortunes of Roger
and Rafa. He also said he is exploring the HEAD frame currently used
by Novak Djokovic, with whom Daman shares his birthday, and is
currently raising funds for the same. Since moving from the 4 1/4 grip
sized Wilson to the 4 3/8 sized grip Babolat, Siddharth has been
suffering a condition known as trigger finger on his little finger.
Http://orthopedics.about.com describes trigger finger as 'a common
problem that causes pain and snapping of the tendons in the fingers.
The problem that occurs in a patient who has trigger finger is due to
the tendons of the fingers, and the sheath in which these tendons
live".

In related news, Daman will be using the Babalot racket of Siddharth
Sharma, better known as Uncle Toni Sharma, for this tournament while
he finalizes which racket to purchase. Sources have reported, though
unconfirmed, of a fall out between Uncle Toni and his star pupil
Haresh; and Daman is reportedly interested in hiring Uncle Toni on a
full-time basis. Daman chose not to comment on this story while
speaking to our reporters while messages and calls to Uncle Toni and
Haresh to comment on the same went unanswered

2:20 PM - Under severe pressure from the world media and the Indian sports and
political fraternity, Commonwealth Games Organizing Committe Chairman
Suresh Kalmadi dashed to Mumbai earlier this morning and called on
AATP's organizing duo Ashutosh Goel and Haresh Ramchandani (to be
referred as HareAsh going forward and pronounced as Hare-Ash) to
enlist their expertise to salvage the Games which is only 11 days
away. HareAsh have built a stellar reputation over the past two years
which is currently seeing their AATP Tour organize their seventh
tennis tournament in less than 2 years. Sources have reported that
HareAsh did meet Kalmadi and promised to reach Delhi on Sunday night
after the AATP Masters comes to end and in the interim will be
supporting Kalmadi's crack team from Mumbai

3:35 PM - Our reporters caught Ashutosh Goel at Lalbaug earlier this afternoon
as the high-flying F&B executive headed to pray at Mumbai's famous Lalbaug Cha Raja on the last day of Ganpati festival, following his meeting with CWG chief Suresh Kalmadi. While Ashutosh would like us to believe this was a routine visit, sources close to the pujari at the temple have told us that he was there to seek divine blesings as he kicks off his campaign to become Cooperage Cha Raja.
When our reporters quizzed Ashu on the status of his shoulder injury
which marred his previous campaign, Ashu replied "My shoulder injury
has completely healed after taking some much needed rest from
competitive tennis. I relocated to the hot climates of Dubai to
undergo a rigorous training and conditioning programme for the season
ahead;" When asked who he thought were favourites and dark horses for
this week's tourney, Ashu believed the Ramchandani brothers would be
hard to beat but thinks a family final will be unlikely again; and
also said to watch out for Siddharth SIngh Rathore "a certain fair and
lovely, or is it handsome, bloke has been rubbing cream into his skin
and his game" and Jonty Kandpal, "the fast rising father of two who
has been seen regularly practicing with his first-born, adding new
dimensions to his game."

4:55 PM - The kick off is only a few minutes away... Bharat and Ashutosh will begin play on Court no. 2 from Group B while Haresh and Nimesh will kick off Group A action on Court No. 1. Dr. Malpani and Suvir Shah are also expected to play their first matches later this evening. Keep checking your mail for updated scores.

6-45 PM - On a quiet Wednesday evening, most of the favourites won their matches. In the only Group B match, Bharat beat Ashutosh 6-2. In Group A, Haresh battled past Nimesh 6-3 in a tight encounter after beating Suvir 6-1. Earlier, Nimesh beat Suvir 6-0. In the final Group A match, Suvir caused an upset by unexpectedly beating Dr. Malpani 7-5 in fading light