Day 2 Reacp

8-20 AM - Rizwan Sumar, the Dubai-based AATP player, has landed in Mumbai earlier this morning. Rizwan is one of regulars on the tour and has always coincided his visits to Mumbai with the AATP schedule. Sources inside Mr. Bhatt's office at MSLTA have also reported that Rizwan has already booked a court for a one-hour practice session later this morning to get familiarised with the courts and conditions

9:05 AM - One of the two players making their debut on the AATP Tour this week has pulled out of the tournament due to last minute personal committments. Rashish, who was slotted to play in Group B, informed organizers early this morning of his inability to play the event. Organizers did not provide more details on the nature of 'personal committments'. While the organizers are trying to get an alternate in place of Rashish, they were not very hopeful since many of the region's other players are in Delhi for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Organizers HareAsh did not seem alarmed at this turn of events and said at worst, Group B would play a round-robin between the remaining 5 players in order to determine the semi-finalists. Bharat, Jonty, Rizwan, Rahul and Ashutosh are the other players in Group B and in the only match so far from the group, Bharat beat Ashutosh 6-2 last evening. Several matches in Group B will take place tonight at 8 pm under the floodlights at MSLTA

11-45 AM - Ayaz Vasi has returned to Mumbai earlier than expected from Surat. With Rashish having pulled out earlier this morning, Ayaz’s return could not have come at a more appropriate time for the organizers who now have a complete field once again. Vasi will take Rashish’s place in the draw in Group B alongside Bharat, Jonty, Ashu, Rizwan and Rahul.

2:00 PM - Mardy Fish’s 30 pound weight loss has been grabbing the headlines all summer in the international tennis media. On this side of the globe, few have paid attention to Nimesh Vora’s weight loss and the gains that he has achieved through it. Since making his debut on the AATP tour, Vora has lost 20 pounds in the last 18 months thanks to a running-diet-gym routine that is now paying huge dividends on the court. The transformation was never clearer than during his match with top seed Haresh last evening. At 4-2, Haresh hit a well-executed drop shot which he says 18 months ago, Nimesh would have reached only on its third bounce. Yesterday, Nimesh not only got there in time but managed to hit a forehand passing shot down the line for a winner. Haresh went on to win that encounter 6-3 in the latest chapter of their 15-year old tennis rivalry.

Haresh has been highly impressed with Nimesh’s retrieving on court in recent times and would put him among the best retrievers in the field this week. Earlier on Wednesday, Nimesh beat school frenemy Suvir Shah 6-0. Vora, who can often be seen running on Marine Drive in the early mornings or late evenings, celebrates his 31st birthday on this coming Monday and can think of no better gift for himself than qualifying for his semi-final on the tour. With a 1-1 record after Day 1 and pivotal matches against Phillips, Dr. Malpani and Siddharth Singh Rathore coming up, Haresh has named his school mate as the dark horse in Group A.

4-15 PM - Inside sources from Tennis Warehouse have confirmed that enigmatic AATP star Siddharth Singh Rathore bought the HEAD racket currently being used by Novak Djokovic on its website late last night, as well as some high-tech strings. Siddharth had been contemplating whether to buy a HEAD or Babolat racket after cracking his Wilson frame a couple of weeks back. However, a few hours later, customs authorities in Mumbai contacted Siddharth and informed him of the exorbitant amount of customs duty that he would have to pay to get the racket imported into the country. Siddharth quickly tried to cancel his order from Tennis Warehouse after realizing the economics of the deal don’t make sense but customs authorities in Mumbai are not in favor of him canceling his order. Last heard, Siddharth had left his factory in Daman on Thursday morning (a day earlier than expected) to meet customs authorities in Mumbai and sort out the issue. He is also expected to meet with his physiotherapists later tonight for some final treatment on his trigger finger before launching an assault on the AATP Masters tomorrow evening. We will keep you updated on developments with this story as we get them.

4-20 PM - The verdict on the Ayodhya title suit has been deferred by at least five days by the Supreme Court. It was scheduled to be delivered tomorrow by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. The Supreme Court will hear a plea before it again on Tuesday, September 28. Authorities were anticipating trouble in several parts of the country including the financial capital Mumbai. AATP organizers had made special chopper arrangements to fly former champion Phillips Eapen from Chembur to Cooperage in case any trouble broke out in the city. However, it looks like at this point that would not be required.

11-30 PM - Bharat and Rizwan scored two wins each on Day 2 of the AATP Masters after an exhausting day's play at the MSLTA courts. Bharat beat Ayaz 6-4 and then followed it with a 6-2 win over Rizwan for this third win in as many matches. Rizwan sandwiched his loss to Bharat in between 6-0 wins over Rahul and Jonty.
In other matches in Group B, Jonty beat Ashu 6-1 while in the longest no-ad set in AATP tennis history at 55 minutes, Ayaz beat Rahul 7-6. The action heats up tomorrow with both groups taking the court at 8 pm

11-50 PM - Siddharth Singh Rathore has informed AATP organizers that he is likely to withdraw from the ongoing AATP Masters after jamming his neck during a workout session in the gym at Daman, Siddharth injured his neck on Wednesday and organizers have given him time till Friday morning hoping that some physiotherapy and a good nights sleep will enable him to participate. Siddharth has suffered several instances of bad luck during the AATP tournaments. In 2009, he had to pull out of one tournament at the last minute due to a flu and earlier this year, he played through one tournament with severe blisetres on his hand. We will provide you more updates on this story and his racket exploits as we get them.