Was in for a pleasant shock at Saravana Bhavan, T-Nagar today. Was starving and yet, in the mood for a quick bite. In an overcrowded restaurant, thought it would be prudent to order the most popular dish of the afternoon - the Limited Meals. WYSI(not)WYG. Was totally unprepared for a kids meal, really. I dunno how they came up with a tray of six half-empty bowls with assorted varieties of rice and dry vegetables. Best of all, the stuff is served with chilled Pepsi (in a container the size of a coffee cup) and lemon pickle. After that meal, I was still hungry, but the desire to try anything else was gone.

Headed to the SDAT Tennis Stadium in Nungambakkam. The place looked neat and well decked up, especially the centre court. All that appreciation came crashing down when I headed to ease myself out. Its kinda sad that we probably have the worst-maintained public restrooms in the world.

4PM. Jonas Björkman and Mahesh Bhupathi were already on the court, practising. The warm-up session looked terrific, with every shot perfectly in place. The two of them got to the net and practised fiery volleys that brought in a serious round of applause from the small crowd at the stands.

Cat, Isaac, Hari and myself had our seats at South Yellow - right above the Players Guests's Area. Had a good view of the court, until the seats ahead of us got filled up. Who sits ahead of you, finally decides what you ultimately get to watch.

But Tennis is, really colourful. Yellow, brown, green and orange coloured seats. Event managers in maroon outfits. Ballboys and linesmen in Navy blues. Paradorn Srichaphan was in his usual audacious Adidas red Tee with black shorts. Carlos Moya did his bit for Nike - in a white 'n' blue combination and a headband with the 'swoosh'. And of course, a fantastic-green centre court, to play on.

Am not a sports addict, but liked the Moya dude. He lost the first set. Made a come-back by winning the second and was in deep trouble at 3-5 in the last set. Srichaphan was the crowd-favourite. Some of these kids kept yelling 'C'mon Tiger'. But I guess 'the Spaniard' is not called King Carlos for nothin'. Fought back to 5-5. Scrambled for every ball that Paradorn shoved at the baseline's extremes. Served at a pleasant 213kmph and also made one lob from the baseline that made everybody gasp in awe. Yeah, he got that point as well.

It looked like Srichaphan was having some trouble with his calf muscles. Seemed to be in pain. But he fought hard. This was not just-another-game. This was the Chennai Open Singles Final. I loved the pace and was thrilled that Moya won the match after a tie-breaker 7-6. Most importantly, I liked that feeling that strangely, criss-crossed, MY mind.. There's nothing like winning.

The Doubles match followed. But we had had our share of the fun. Did not stick around post the third game and headed for food.

Shombit joined us at Roomaallee - Dunno where they learnt to spell it that way. Its bang opposite Music Academy, and it was actually quite a lot of fun eating under concrete umbrellas and ambient lighting. The food was good. The roomallee was served steaming hot. Light music in the background. And service that was super fast. Sometimes, things are just right.