Focus now shifts to the doubles as the Amritraj cousins and, Todd Woodbridge and myself play our opening games. It's the first day of a new year and all those who take the court on Wednesday would want to start the year on a winning note. On Wednesday morning Todd and 1 had our last round of practice before our game against the Mark Philippoussis- Justin Gimelstob duo. The game is scheduled to be the second one on Wednesday at around 6.30 pm, and hope fully by the time you read this, we would have made it to the next round.

Both Todd and I are essentially doubles players and we will he digging into our experience to see us through against one of the best sides on show. Both Phillipoussis and Gimelstob played singles matches on Tuesday; the latter running Karol Kucera close in a close match. This might tell on them if the match too is a long one. Ideally, however. Todd and I would ideally like to close out the game as soon as possible. The other Indian duo, Prakash and Stephen Amritraj are pretty inexperienced.

However, they have played together a lot so at least the coordination between the two of them should not be a problem. Although they are raw. I still think that if they ride the crowd support well they are in with a chance. The third Indian in the doubles, Leander Paes will only start his campaign on Thursday, Tuesday's singles went more or less according to script with only No. 5 seed Andrei Pavel being surprised by the unfancied Tomas Behrend.

Paradorn Srichaphan and Philippoussis sailed through with minimum fuss and it's unfortunate that they are in the same halt'. It looks as though whoever wins their encounter will eventually go all the way. As far as I'm concerned, that will be the de facto final of the Tata Open.