Welcome to Chennai. It’s raining at the tennis tournament…

Written by: Staff on 31st December 2011

Swiss Indoors tennis tournament in Basel

Welcome to Chennai. It's raining at the tennis tournament...

Belgium's Xavier Malisse returns the ball to Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their first round match at the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, 01 November 2011. EPA/GEORGIOS KEFALAS |

By: Lou Fuller

Rohan Bopanna had the same tweet that keeps popping up…. Arrived in Chennai. It’s raining … Seems like the rain was causing flight delays…. Rohan will be playing dubs in 2012 with his buddy and countryman Mahesh Bhupathi.

We are pretty sure Xavier Malisse and his brilliant young coach Maxime Braeckman are there.Yes they are!

We see the big Dutchman Theimo de Bakker is there. (could be a top tender) He is set to play Cabal of Columbia.

The terrifically talented Treat Huey from the Phillipines plays South

African Rik De Voest. If you haven’t seen Treat play. Especially doubles you are missing a treat or two.

Rohan Bopanna plays a Japanese player I’m not familiar with named Go Soeda. Works for me. Go Soeda!

Wow. Chennai has a great draw. Xavier Malisse. Janko Tipsarevic. Stan Wawrinka . Milos Raonic. Ollie Rochus. Nicolas Almagro. American Sam Querrey .

Ok. I looked more. The old second look. I see some amazing talent and names in this draw. Both Becks . Karol Beck from svk. And Andreas Beck of Germany. Ha.. you thought it was the Beck bros. ..

Somdev Devvarman. Ivan Dodig . Fabio Fognini.

This is a 250 on the ATP tour. For a 250 in Chennai to pull in this draw it’s AmazeBalls. Totally.

Tipsarevic is 9 in the world.

Almagro is 10

Wawrinka is 17

Raonic is 31

Dodig is 36

Fognini is 48

X-Man. Xavier Malisse is 49. And wearing 10sballs.com patch for the start of our 3rd year !

Ollie Rochus is 67. (we are huge fans of his and his brother… both Rochus brothers are great sportsman. We miss Chris and his honesty about the tour, we also miss his brilliant shot making… Like his slice backhand)

Let’s look in on the doubles. Wow. Top seeds the newest Indian dynamic duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna. Yikes. First round they play our X-Man and Ken Skupski.

Jonathan Ehrlich and Andy Ram the awesome Israelis play two Indians. My iPad is going to have fun with these names. Heck. An Indian wildcard team. That’s the best I can do. Or the Indians are playing the Israelis … Geezers gonna be mad at me. But it’s been a long year. Next.

I see an awesome first round match. Almost want to hop on the plane after looking over the draws!

Leander Paes and Janko Tipsarevic play Treat Conrad Huey and Somdev Devvarman. That’s going to be a lot of fast hands at the net.

Hi to Frank Moser in Doha. The Greg Rusedski look alike.

If it’s true that Andy Murray hired Ivan Lendl as a coach I’m in shock … but what do I know …