As night fell on the Atlanta Athletic Club on Monday, Amit Dave and his son Ishaan got what they came for.
They posed for photos with Rajeev Ram, who had just won his first-round match of the inaugural Atlanta Tennis Championships. They chatted happily with Ram, whose uncle studied chemical engineering 30 years earlier with Amit in Srinagar, India.
Said Amit Dave of Grayson, "I never thought I'd see his nephew 30 years later playing tennis in Atlanta, Georgia."
Ishaan Dave was equally pleased. It was the first professional tennis tournament he had seen. To the organizers of the tournament, that was exactly the point.
"We're looking forward to having the event this year, next year and many years to come," said Rex Maynard, U.S. Tennis Association Southern Section president, in greeting the crowd.
Atlanta hosted pro tennis for the first time since 2001, when the Atlanta Tennis Challenge closed for lack of a title sponsor. Fans, many dressed in cocktail party garb, cooled themselves with fans, sipped cool drinks and savored any passing breeze. Perhaps subdued by the heat, they came to life to applaud superior shots.
Maynard and the Southern Section had tried to land the tournament since last summer. He remembered moments when he was convinced the deal was dead. But there he was Monday, flipping a coin to open a night match between Mardy Fish and James Ward.
Said Maynard, "I guess I'd say it was everything I envisioned it could have been."
The schedule was something less than tantalizing, highlighted by Fish's match with Ward and a following doubles matchup of James Blake and Georgia grad John Isner against Kennesaw's Robby Ginepri and Ryan Sweeting. Some of the tournament's more recognizable names -- Ginepri, Blake and Atlantan Donald Young -- will play Tuesday in first-round singles matches. Andy Roddick and Fish will play a doubles match in the evening against Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili and Poland's Michal Przysiezny.
Roddick, Isner and former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt will play their first singles matches either Wednesday or Thursday.
The biggest singles match of the day was six-seeded Fish's 6-1, 6-2 defeat of wild card Ward, an Englishman. Fish continued his solid run, having won in Newport, R.I., in his previous tournament. He's now won six matches in a row.
"I just want to sort of keep the momentum going," said Fish, ranked No. 49 in the world. "Confidence is a huge part of tennis. I feel extremely confident right now and it feels good."
Ram ousted Karol Beck of Slovakia, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Illya Marchenko of the Ukraine defeated Belgium's Kristof Vliegen, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Rainer Schuettler of Germany knocked out Gabashvili, 6-1, 6-4.
American Michael Russell took out German Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-3.
As the tournament kicks off the U.S. Open Series, the 10-tournament prelude to the U.S. Open, many players are hoping to use the event to launch a strong hard-court season.
"You want to be playing your best tennis by the U.S. Open in New York, so it can be a little scratchy the first couple of matches," Hewitt said. "But it's a matter of surviving and getting better as the week goes on."
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