NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Paes-Bhupathi in Wimbledon quarters

For the first time in their playing careers, the Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have entered the quarterfinal stage at Wimbledon.

The Indians defeated the 16-th seeded American pair of Patrick Galbraith and Justin Gimelstob 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 2 hours 15 minutes, in a match which was disrupted by rain.

Pre-match thinking was that it would be a tough outing, but the top-seeded Indians ground out a surprisingly easy win despite their serve being broken on several occasions.

When you look at a graph of the match, you realise that the Indians' success owed to the fact that they played the big points better -- which in turn speaks highly of the confidence the pair has in itself just now.

The first set saw few problems for the Indian pair, but the second set began with Mahesh Bhupathi suffering hamstring trouble. The Indians were broken in the second game, but came back to break Galbraith/Gimelstob in the 7th. However, Paes and Bhupathi were then broken again, in game ten, and with that break went the set, 4-6.

Paes and Bhupathi then raised the level of their play a notch, breaking their opponents twice -- in games 3 and 9 -- to take the set comfortably, 6-4.

The top seeds started the fourth set with a service break but were broken right back by Galbraith/Gimelstob. However, the top-ranked pair held their nerve, kept up the pressure and broke again in game five, to take the set 6-4 and get into the quarters.

The identity of their quarterfinal opponents is yet to be determined. The Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, were serving at 7-6 in the fifth set, against the 9th seeds Lareau/O'Brien, when rain halted play for the day. That unfinished fifth set, which has to be played out till on serve at 7-6 (no tiebreaker) when the match was postponed for today due to rain.

Leander and Mahesh have thus far earned 206 points -- including 38 bonus points -- and have thus pushed their points tally way beyond reach of their nearest competitors. Even Sandon Stolle, who at about 650 points behind Mahesh was the only one with even a mathematical chance of changing the rankings individual rankings, would appear to be out of the race now -- he would need to actually win the title to have any hope of taking either the number one or two rankings, held now by the Indians.

Mahesh meanwhile has to turn out today, alongside Annabel Ellwood, for his second round mixed doubles match against the 4th seeds Knowles/Likhovtseva.

Leander's mixed doubles fixture however does not find a place in today's schedule. Thus, it is beginning to look like he will have to play the next five rounds in five days, and if he and Lisa Raymond keep winning in the mixed doubles, then that makes three more rounds to play as well.

What makes it all the harder for Leander is that next week, he is supposed to get to Newport and play singles there. All of which begs the question -- despite brilliant sunshine for an entire week, how come the mixed doubles event is so far behind schedule? At the time of writing this, the first round isn't even fully complete yet, and that means that the winning teams are going to have a real tough grind as the tournament enters its final phase.