World No. 20 Schalken to play in Tata Open tennis
Asian Age — November 19, 2002

Chennai: The field for Tata Open tennis championship, scheduled to be here from December 30, got a shot in its arm with top Dutch Sjeng Schalken confirming participation in the ATP Tour-opener next season.

Schalken, who has seven ATP singles titles and six ATP doubles titles to his credit, had finished the year at number 20 in the ATP champion’s race, a release from IMG, the event managers, said on Monday. IMG managing director Ravi Krishnan said Schalken was a "tough" competitor. "We are looking forward to seeing him."

Schalken has had a history in Grand Slams and he had beaten Mark Philippousis (Australia), former world number one Gustavo Kuerten (Brazil) and Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) to reach the semi-finals in the US Open.

He also had a history of long matches, especially at the Wimbledon. In 1999, he lost to Jim Courier in the fifth set of third round. Next year, in a third round match that lasted for 5 hours and 5 minutes, he lost 18-20 in the 5th set to Philippoussis, which stands as a record for longest final set and the second-longest singles match ever.