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Indian pair looked relaxed in first round win

Shailesh Soni

The Indian doubles pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi moved into the second round of the Wimbledon doubles competition with an easy victory over the unseeded pair of Tom Kempers and Michael Kohlmann.

The scoreline of 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(7-3) isn't quite indicative of the trend of play, but a look at the match statistics tell the true story. The Indians had only one double fault and comitted very few errors to go along with three aces, while Kempers/Kohlmann served 11 aces, but had eight double faults during the match.

In the first set, the Indians got the vital break in the fifth game and took the set at 6-4. In the second, the Indians again got breaks in the fifth and seventh games before wrapping it up at 6-2. The third set witnessed games going with service before being decided by the tie-breaker.

One significant aspect of the match was that neither Paes nor Bhupathi gave away points on serves, and never faced a break point in the whole match. The match would have been over faster had the Indian's converted four service break chances in the third and fifth games of the third set, but it appeared both were having a good time on court.

In the second round, the Indians play another 'qualifier' team - Gabriel Trifu of Romania and Bobby Kokavec of Canada, who created a flutter in beating Alberto Martin and Eyal Ran 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(7-5) in the first round.

In the other matches of the first half of the draw, 16th seed Patrick Galbraith/Justin Gimelstob defeated Massimo Ardinghi/Alex Lopez Moron 6-0, 6-2, 6-4; ninth seed Sebastien Lareau/Alex O'Brien beat the Argentinian pair of Mariano Hood/Sebastian Prieto 6-1, 6-4,1-6, 6-3; seventh seed Ellis Ferreira/Rick Leach won a tough match against the American pair of Geoff Grant/T.J. Middleton 7-5, 7-6(7-5), 7-6(7-1); fourth seed Wayne Black/Sandon Stolle defeated Scott Humphries/Jack Waite 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(6-8), 6-1.

In the second half of the draw, Roger Federer/Lleyton Hewitt created the first upset of the doubles, when they defeated the 13th seeded Sweedish pair of Nicklas Kulti/Mikael Tillstrom 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(7-3), 6-7(4-6), 6-4. The third seeded pair of Bjorkman/Rafter were also taken to five sets by Barnard/Haygarth, before winning 6-1, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

The Australian pair of Wayne Arthurs/Andrew Kratzmann, seeded 12th, won a four-set match against the Italian pair of Massimo Bertolini/Cristian Brandi 4-6, 7-6(8-6), 6-4, 7-5. Eighth seeds Paul Haarhuis/Jared Palmer were also through to the second round.

In the mixed doubles, Leander Paes and Lisa Raymond of the US have been given top billing, and will face the unseeded pair of David Roditi/Sonya Jeyaseelan. Mahesh Bhupathi has again changed his partner, and will be playing with Annabel Ellwood of Australia. As Annabel is not highly ranked in doubles, they have not been seeded and will face Ben Ellwood/Asa Carlsson in the first round.