Rafael Nadal in Chennai on Monday. (AFP)

Chennai: The Nungambakkam Stadium more than three-fourths full on Day I of the Chennai Open... That, too, for a first-round doubles encounter...

No, that isn’t any figment of imagination. That, indeed, was the reality here on New Year’s Day. And if anyone’s still wondering how it was possible, here’s the answer: One Rafael Nadal was kick-starting the new season on Indian soil.

The crowd had started building up slowly but surely from 4.30 pm when the inauguration function took place. By the time Tomas Behrend and Robin Vik beat Indian wild cards Vishal Uppal and Ashutosh Singh in match No. 1 on centre court, nearly 3000 seats had already been occupied, in anticipation.

Minutes later, when that familiar character appeared on court sporting a bandana, that trademark pair of capris and sleeveless T-shirt, the stadium exploded. Something you would experience on Sachin Tendulkar reaching a three-digit score at any Indian ground.

The showman that he is, Nadal had the audience dancing to his catchy tunes. He moved around the court like an athlete in pursuit of Olympic glory, often trespassing into fellow-Spaniard Bartolome Salva-Vidal’s territory. His sharp and precise volleying almost made one forget that he is the ‘king on clay.’

At times, the super-energetic Nadal overdid his stuff, resulting in a few cheap points for the opponents. But who cared? As long as Nadal was winning, there was not a single voice of dissent among the boisterous crowd.

Nadal and his fellow-leftie not only won, they gave second seeds and defending champions Petr Pala and Michal Mertinak a heck of a beating. The 6-1, 6-3 scoreline in 57 minutes is self-explanatory.

Happy to have played a “very good match” in front of a “nice audience”, Nadal said he would love to pair up with Roger Federer. “Yes, I would love to play a doubles event with Roger... it’s possible.”

The Nadal show easily overshadowed everything else on Day I. There were very few left to watch wild card Prakash Amritraj put up a fight in the first set against Croat giant Ivo Karlovic only to suffer the familiarly painful Indian fate.

There had been many raised eyebrows when Prakash was granted a wild card this time. Simply because he had been laid low for months by a nagging wrist injury. Many were convinced his automatic entry was ensured by influential dad Vijay.

The Indian hung on without coming close to breaking the six-foot-ten-inch Karlovic’s serve (he produced 14 aces) even once. In the tie-break Prakash came up short. Karlovic upped the tempo in the second set to take the match 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.

Third seed Xavier Malisse brought Asian Games champion Danai Udomchoke down to earth with a 6-2, 6-2 whipping.

Two French seeds advanced to the round of 16. No. 4 Julian Benneteau saw off Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 6-4, while No. 8 Nicolas Mahut edged out Colombian Alajandro Falla 7-5, 6-4.

Kevin Kim, an American of Korean descent, rallied to down German Simon Greul 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. Completing Day I action was Italian Stefano Galvani, who shut out Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu.