NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Indian Express on steam

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi pulled off the big one when they beat the famed Woodies in the Shanghai open finals.

Paes/Bhupathi won the hard fought match 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6(4).

They defended the title and got some extra points to add on - 195 points, including 45 bonus points.

Paes and Bhupathi, it will be recalled, had lost a heartbreaker to the Woodies at the Cincinnati Super 9 in August '97 August, 6-2, 6-7, 1-6, after completely outplaying them in the first set and leading by a break in the second.

That was their 3rd loss in 3 attempts against the Woodies, the first being the loss at the Atlanta Olympics in 3 sets, and the second the 3-6, 3-6 loss at Queens in June '97.

Since then, these two pairs have been in 14 tournaments at the same time, they have both been seeded high in all these tournaments, and yet somehow, they never played each other since then.

This, thus, was their first meeting in 15 tournaments wherein both the Woodies and the Indian Express pair participated.

Thanks to rain, and the resulting postponement of the Shanghai Open doubles final to Monday, meanwhile, both Leader and Mahesh are in for a hard grind.

Leander will, just a day later, have to play Martin Damme, ranked number 70, while Bhupathi plays sixth seed Mikael Tillstrom, ranked 64, in the first round of the Singapore Heinekken Open.

Considering that the Indian players are not going to get to Singapore till very late Monday, it is going to be a tough ask -- especially for Mahesh, who yet again finds himself facing a seeded player in the first round.

Leander is in lower half of the draw with the 7th seed, Paul Haarhuis, as his potential third round opponent. 2nd seed Goran Ivanisevic is also in the lower half of the draw as Leander's quarterfinal opponent.

The Singapore Staits Times confirms that Mahesh, Courier and Stark have been given the three main draw wildcards for the Championship series, Singapore Heineken Open, starting tomorrow.

In doubles, the Paes/Bhupathi pair are again seeded second behind the Australian pair of Woddforde/Woodbridge. Paes/Bhupathi are in the lower half of the draw with the Sebastian Lareau/Daniel Nestor, seeded third, as the only big name opposition.

The Indians will play Mark Keil and T J Tielemann in the first round.