The men who matter appear to be honing in on their target with calculated precision on the eve of the New Year at the Tata Open tennis tournament being conducted under floodlights at the Nungambakkam tennis stadium in Chennai. The blue-eyed boy of modern tennis, Mark Philippoussis, and reigning champion, Guillermo Canas, moved into the second round — but not without hiccups.

While Canas rallied to get the better of Dick Norman of Belgium, the injury-plagued Philippoussis swept past Germany's Michael Kohlmann 7-6 (3), 6-3 and faces No. 8 seed Rainer Schuettler next. Also through to the next round was No. 2 seed Paradorn Srichapan of Thailand who had the crowd behind him totally, now that the brief Indian challenge has petered out. Rohan Bopanna was the last of the Indians to bow out late on Monday night.

After a gallant showing, he lost 4-6, 6-7 (3) to Zeljko Krajan of Croatia. Having won the first set against Jan Vacek of the Czech Republic 7-5, Srichapan's groundstrokes proved too tough for the Czech to handle and the highest ranked Asian raced to 6-2 in the next. Four successive double-faults in the eighth game of the first set which resulted in break of service could not stop the 'Scud' (Mark Philippoussis) from accomplishing his mission.

It was obvious that he was not at his peak, nevertheless his meteoric aces — he had eight in total — were sufficient to pull him out of trouble. Philippoussis said he was happy about the manner in which he has progressed. "It is tough to play after three surgeries in two years but it's my love for tennis which has kept me motivated. The atmosphere in Chennai is quite similar to that in Hong Kong and I like it here. The match against Rainer should be a tough affair as we both know each other's game pretty well."

Guillermo Canas displayed all the qualities of a champion when he clawed his way back after dropping the first set against big-serving Belgian southpaw Dick Norman to register a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory in 1 hour 53 minutes in a first-round match of the Tata Open.

Canas, from the baseline, and Norman, serving and volleying, meant that just about every shot in the book was played. The 6 ft 8 inches tall Norman commenced with a great deal of confidence, breaking Canas in the fifth game of the opening set. He first unsettled Canas with a double-handed backhand down the line to reach deuce before playing two marvellous forehand winners — a reverse cross-court shot which caught Canas unawares and a cross court winner which flat-footed the Argentine completely.

With the break under his belt, Norman was a changed player — his confidence level soaring high. Thereafter, a flurry of aces helped him to hold service without much ado in the sixth and eighth games. Obviously unnerved after the break, Canas very nearly lost his service once again in the ninth game but some great baseline stuff helped him to hang on till the 10th game which Norman ran through at love.

At that point, there was good chance that the champion may be dethroned in the very first round. However, the Argentine, who is ranked a creditable 15th in the ATP rankings, had other ideas. He started the second set in whirlwind fashion, holding service at love in the first game and then pushing Norman to the wall on the latter's service. Norman had to save a breakpoint and play three deuces before holding his serve. Canas was in danger of losing the third game but an ace in the nick of time after saving breakpoint earned him the advantage and he did not make any mistake thereafter.