In mid-March, Moya, his trainer Luis Miguel Morales and coach Jose Perias, performed a courtside routine of 10 jumps holding hands soon after the Spaniard attained the coveted No.1 ranking on the ATP Tour following his 6-3, 1-6, 6-1, defeat of Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten, at the Indian Wells event in the United States.

Two weeks later, at the Lipton Super-9 event in Florida, Moya lost the top spot to the man he displaced, Pete Sampras (US), when he exited early. And presently, in this numbers game, Sampras enjoys a nine-point lead over Moya at 3525 to 3516. With the American not scheduled to play any Tour tournament this week, Moya is expected to regain the No.1 ranking, here in Chennai, by at least making it to the second round thatwould net him 18 ATP points.

This year, the 32-man main draw includes 10 top-100 players, with Moya, ranked No.2 and Karol Kucera of Slovakia (10), heading the field and seeded to meet in the final.

However, the draw has a few dangerous `floaters' like Australian youngster, Andrew Ilie (seeded 5), the Swedish brigade of 1997 champion and '98 runner-up Mikael Tillstrom, who is unseeded this year and Thomas Johansson (No.3 seed), and fourth seeded Byron Black of Zimbabwe, to toss just a few names.

Indians top seeds: Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes were seeded No 1 in the 16-pair draw for the doubles event after Byron Black opted out of the event, adds PTI. Two-time champions here, the Indian combination will take on Vicenzo Snatopadre of Italy and Massimo Ardinghi in the first round.

Zimbabwe's Black brothers Byron and Wayne are both here but Byron, who is seeded fourth in the singles, decided not play doubles. Also in the top half of the draw is India's Syed Fazaluddin who was given a wild cardin the main draw.