Dev Varman admits that the lack of a wildcard was one of the reasons that will keep him away from Nungambakkam Stadium next week. "Yeah, that and some other things that I had to do also," the reigning NCAA champion told the Indian Tennis Blog. "I am training right now and plan on playing a Futures in Florida and then start the tennis season in school."
The wildcards for the main draw of the 2008 Chennai Open, to be held from December 31 to January 6, have gone the way of India's no. 2 player Prakash Amritraj and Grasscourt National Champion Vishnu Vardhan.
The third, which could have gone to another Indian player like Dev Varman, has been granted to Spaniard Bartolome Salva-Vidal.
The decision puts yet another dampener on a tournament already missing the best known names in Indian tennis.
While doubles specialist Leander Paes starts off his 2008 season on the Australian circuit with new partner Paul Hanley, singles no. 1 Rohan Bopanna will be busy partnering Sania Mirza at the Hopman Cup. And Mahesh Bhupathi will be making his comeback from injury the week after the Chennai event. Dev Varman is currently ranked a measly 1034 on the ATP Tour, thanks to his decision not to turn professional till mid-2008, when he finishes his stint at the University of Virginia.
But the 22-year-old won the NCAA championship in May 2007 - the first Indian to triumph at the premier American collegiate event and emulate the likes of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe.
INTERVIEW (Oct 2007)
But father Imran Mirza told the Indian Tennis blog the controversy was the "creation of certain troublemakers in the media".
Bhupathi, still recovering from back surgery, said he is determined to make it to the Australian Open in January with new partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas. But the decision to play in Chennai would be taken at the last minute.
The US $436,000 hardcourt tournament in Chennai has been an annual feature since 1997 and only the four doubles titles in 1997, 98, 99 and 2002 have been won by Indians.
Interestingly, Iyer also lost to Chakravarthi in the second round of the Pune event in 2006. 
Singh lost a tight match 3-6,6-3,7-6(6) to top-seeded Czech Adam Vejmelka in the final but the 25-year-old Indian shouldn't be too disappointed by his performance against a player ranked 240 places above him on the ATP list. 
But the big news for India is the return of Harsh Mankad after a year-long break from the tennis court thanks to knee injuries. Currently ranked 1456, Mankad is playing the qualifiers at the ATP Challenger in Champaign, USA.
At least doubles specialist Leander Paes has better odds despite 
The newly qualified Masters Cup pair bowed out of the BNP Paribas Masters in the first round on Monday.
Rastogi, sidelined with a back injury during the ATP Mumbai Open in September, told the Indian Tennis blog that his back was better and he planned to play both the hardcourt challenger events in the Indian capital at the end of 2007.
But India's second-string players, with the exception of world number 605 Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, failed to make it beyond the second round in the singles. Eighth seed Sipaeya lost to eventual champion Ivan Cerovic of Croatia in the quarter-finals.
The previous day, Bellary semifinalist Ashutosh Singh bowed out in the second round to Israel's Dekel Valtzer.
Bhambri's gritty performance against a player ranked one thousand places above him on the ATP list marks him out as a future hope for India.
"It has been a long and hard year for me, where I had to make repeated comebacks from two serious injuries and a surgery," Mirza was quoted as saying by The Times of India. 
Four doubles titles came her way this season with victories at Morocco (with Vania King), Cincinnati (with Bethanie Mattek), Stanford (with Shahar Peer) and New Haven (with Mara Santangelo). Mirza ended the year with a 32-11 record in doubles.
Amritraj, who grew up in the Californian city of Calabasas, partnered American Adam Davidson to reach the doubles semifinal at the ATP Calabasas Challenger.
Singh's splendid run in the singles event, which began with ousting top seed Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia 6-3,6-4 in the opening round, came to an end in the semifinals.
Down under in Gympie(Australia), Tara Iyer couldn't do much against fourth seeded home favourite Monique Adamczak and lost 1-6,6-7(5) in the first round.
The result was Mirza's 19th defeat as opposed to 30 wins on the WTA Tour this year and her ranking is likely to slide further. 
By the end of the match, Krajicek had blazed 6 aces as opposed to zero for Mirza although the Indian had a better first serve percentage (65 as opposed to 60).
The loss was a disappointing one for Rao but it was still her best result for 2007 - gaining her $3,990 in prizemoney and 25 valuable WTA points. Her latest ranking shot ten places up to 175 and Rao is now within striking distance of her career-best ranking of 152 (achieved in July 2003).
In the latest WTA rankings (October 15), Rao led an army of Indian women moving up the list. Tara Iyer moved one place up to 358, Rushmi Chakravarthi gained two places to be ranked 368 and Isha Lakhani moved up three spots to 432.
Rohan Bopanna, the best Indian player in the men's singles, was down nine places (260) while Prakash Amritraj slid two spots (270). The big gainer - no. 343 Karan Rastogi who moved up four places.
Her luck in the doubles was only marginally better. Partnering Switzerland's Patty Schnyder, Mirza was ousted by the world's best doubles pair - Cara Black and Liezel Huber - in the quarterfinals.
Paes and Damm even had two matchpoints before the fourth seeded Polish pair of Marciusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski advanced to the final with a 2-6, 7-5, 12-10 win.
On the ITF circuit, Sunitha Rao has made the quarterfinals of the $50,000 San Francisco event. Her match against Indonesia's Romana Tedjakusuma wasn't over when this report was filed but there's a good chance the eighth seed will get through easily to the semis. Rao had routed Tedjakusuma in straight sets at a $25,000 tournament in Tampa, USA earlier this year.
Playing their first match since the defending champions were ousted in their US Open opener in August, second seeds Paes and Damm took nearly an hour-and-a-half to subdue their opponents 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.
Arguably the best Indian doubles player ever, Paes has been at loggerheads with former partner Mahesh Bhupathi (probably the real reason for bypassing ATP Mumbai - a tournament promoted by Bhupathi's company). 
The 6-3, 6-4 defeat at Moscow's Olympic Stadium was Mirza's third straight loss to Dulko in WTA tour meetings. And she hasn't been able to take a set off the 41st-ranked player yet.
In the quarterfinals, Mirza and Schnyder will be pitted against top seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of the US. 
Montanes, a claycourter ranked 48th in the world, was expected to be a tough opponent so it was a surprise when the 252-ranked Bopanna broke him in the second game and the scoreboard soon read 4-1 in his favour. 
Montanes raced away to a 3-0 lead, breaking Bopanna's serve in a game which went to deuce. Two games later, the Indian number one was down 0-40 on his own serve and Montanes broke him again lead 5-1. The Spaniard served for the match in the following game and won on the first of two matchpoints.
India's number one singles player, currently ranked 252 on the ATP list, is slated to play Spain's Albert Montanes in the first round on Monday. Bopanna would be playing the 48-ranked Montanes for the very first time on the ATP Tour.
Bopanna, ranked 252 in the world, had started well - blazing five aces as the two players picked up three games apiece. One breakpoint had come Bopanna's way early in the match but he failed to capitalise on it - something he was to rue later.
The loss of the first set seemed to affect Bopanna's play and Wessels broke him again in the third game of the second set. The Indian wilted under pressure and Wessels was soon 5-1 up.
Ghouse and his Australian partner Alun Jones went down fighting 6-7(7),6-2,10-6 to Poland's Tomasz Bednarek and Slovakia's Filip Polasek at the indoor event.
Second seed Singh had beaten the 17-year-old Gunneswaran 6-4, 7-6(4) in the Nationals final in New Delhi on Friday.
The 18-year-old American carved out a hardfought 7-6(4),7-6(3) victory over seventh-seeded Rao. It was Glatch's third straight win over Rao, having also beaten her in 2004 and in the final of the $25,000 Southlake, Texas tournament in July this year.
Mirza, seeded second at the WTA Tier III event in Tokyo, couldn't find her rhythm against the eighth-seeded Pennetta - whom she had beaten in straight sets in their only previous meeting at the Open Gaz de France, Paris in February 2006.
It was Mirza's 17th loss on the WTA Tour this year as opposed to 30 wins. Her run to the singles quarterfinals earned the 20-year-old Hyderabadi $7105 and 65 WTA points. 
Surely, it was time for Dev Varman to say goodbye to the University of Virginia and turn professional. After all, the man he beat in the NCAA final - American John Isner - is already making waves on the ATP Tour. And doesn't India desperately need a male Sania Mirza?
Up next for the 20-year-old from Hyderabad is eighth seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta. Mirza had beaten her in straight sets in their only career meeting at the Open Gaz de France, Paris in February 2006.
Razzano beat Mirza in straight sets in Los Angeles this year and is coming off a win at the Jinjiannan Guangzhou International Women's Open. Should Mirza survive, awaiting her in the final would be world no 8 Venus Williams, herself on a roll after a victory at Seoul last week. 
The Indian then seemed to let down her guard, with the 17-year-old Morita breaking Mirza's serve in the very first game of the second set. A game later, the Japanese player was two points away from leading 3-0. 
In the quarterfinals, Mirza could run into eighth seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta whom she had beaten in their only career meeting in Paris last year.
