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Paes, Bhupathi begin quest for Queen's crown

Shailesh Soni

The party is over and they are back to business.

The Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will be seen in action at the 725,000 dollar Stella Artois Championships, to be played at the Queen's Club, London, this week.

The tournament is a warm-up for the Wimbledon championships, which starts from June 21, and also gives players the opportunity to get used to the grass surface after a long clay-court season.

Paes and Bhupathi have been given top billing for the doubles tournament. They are in the upper half of the draw and have a first round bye. In the second round, they will play the winner of the first round match between B Coupe/M Merklein and a qualifier team.

It will be a tough match for the Indians, with hardly a day or two for practice on grass. And if B Coupe/M Merklein make it to the second round, the "Indian Express" will look forward to settle a score with them, for the loss (one of the worst of their career) in Doha earlier this year, though it was probably also because Paes was down with bronchitis.

Generally, the upper half of the draw looks marginally easier, with the other seeded teams being fourth seed Martin Damm/Cyril Suk, fifth seed Sebastein Lareau/Alex O'Brien, and seventh seed Wayne Arthurs/ Andrew Kratzmann.

Second seeds Todd Woodbridge/Mark Woodforde are in the lower half of the draw and also have a bye in the first round. Other seeded teams in this half are third seeds Wayne Black/Sandon Stolle, sixth seeds Jim Grabb/Donald Johnson and eighth seeds Yevgeny Kafelnikov/Max Mirnyi.

The "Woodies" and Bjorkman/Rafter had shared the title at Queen's last year, after the final was abandoned due to rain. Paes/ Bhupathi had reached the semi-finals (lost to Bjorkman/Rafter) but have only some 90-odd points to defend here.

It would be nice for the Indians to get their first grass title at Queen's, though much will depend on how quickly they get used to the conditions and the surface, after all the slipping-and-sliding on red brick powder at Roland Garros for two weeks.

The Indians will only be playing doubles at Queen's Club. Paes plans to play singles next week at Rosmalen to prepare for Wimbledon, starting in the week after, where they may have to play the qualifier to get in.

The draw for the first round is

Stella Artois Championships
Queen's Club, London, Great Britain
June 7-13, 1999
Surface - Grass