Chennai: The Amritraj brothers were playing in front of a small but active crowd. It was almost like Davis Cup in the eighties.

The difference was that cousins Prakash and Stephen, sons of Vijay and Anand Amritraj, led 5-2 in the second set before losing to Karsten Braasch and Rainer Schuettler of Germany 4-6, 6-7 (4) in the doubles first round of the $400,000 Tata Open tennis tournament at the Nungambakkam Stadium yesterday.

For several, there might have been a sense of déjà vu, particularly for Vijay Amritraj’s mother Maggie, who watched her grandsons play with infectious enthusiasm and camaraderie.

In fact, she must have been particularly proud when the famous Amritraj sportsmanship came to the fore after Stephen hit Braasch in the second set tie-break with a smash and then profusely apologised even as the German looked away.

A few seconds later, from the baseline before the next serve, the younger cousin apologised again.

Ramesh Krishnan, former Davis Cup player and non-playing captain of the current team, watched from the stands as Prakash, who is eligible for Davis Cup from April, and his cousin battled on. Did he get filmy flashbacks of the two fathers, with whom Krishnan had played for the country?

"It’s difficult to compare. They are two different eras and two different styles. They used to hit single-handed backhands, these boys hit double-handed," Krishnan observed.

"But the interesting difference I noted was that while Vijay played the first court, his son plays the second and vice versa. Apart from that, their fathers played more on grass while today most of the tennis takes place on hard courts."

It was a good day for doubles, a genre of sport under threat from sponsors and organisers as spectators keep dwindling.

For not only were the first two matches on Centre Court yesterday doubles, the half-full Nungambakkam Stadium cheered heartily for the two matches, the second featuring Mahesh Bhupathi and Todd Woodbridge, who beat Justin Gimelstob and Mark Philippoussis 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Sidelined the world over, playing second fiddle all the time, doubles came alive as a Davis Cup-crowd put its heart behind the Indian and then the semi-Indian pairs. One half of the half obliged.

Ironically, it was ‘Scud’ Philippoussis who was broken in the second set as the Indian-Aussie duo stepped on the pedal, Bhupathi applying the finishing touches with a big serving sixth game.