Bhupathi-Gambill advance
in Hamburg Masters

Mahesh Bhupathi and Jan-Michael Gambill entered the quarter-finals of the Hamburg Masters Series tennis tournament, beating Leander Paes and Tomas Cibulec 6-2, 4-6 10-5 via the tie-breaker on Thursday.

Both Bhupathi and Paes changed partners this week after pairing with Max Mirnyi and John-Laffnie de Jager last week at the Rome Masters, where they had early exits. Mirnyi is at Hamburg, but playing only singles, while John-Laffnie de Jager is unwell.

Bhupathi and Gambill had a chance to break in the second game after forcing Paes and Cibulec to deuces but missed out on the opportunity. However, they broke in the fourth and eighth games to take the first set.

Paes and Cibulec came back strongly in the second set, converting a 30-40 break-point in the first game. But Bhupathi and Gambill returned the break at 1-2 and 0-30 down by winning the next 10 points in a row to level scores at 2-2. Games then went with serve till 4-4, when Paes-Cibulec had two break-points at 15-40, which they converted on the first one to go up a break. They then served out the next game at love to take the set and level the match scores.

In the super tie-breaker, Paes-Cibulec started strongly, winning the first point off their opponents' serve and taking two on their own serve to lead 3-0. But suddenly they lost direction and dropped 10 of the next 12 points to give Bhupathi and Gambill victory.

In the process, Bhupathi scored his first victory over Paes in four matches (two singles and two doubles.

In other second round matches, sixth seeds Joshua Eagle/Sandon Stolle of Australia beat Arnaud Clement/Nicolas Escude of France 1-6, 6-2, (10-4) while second seeds Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor (BAH/CAN) beat Michael Hill/Daniel Vacek (AUS/CZE) 6-7(3), 7-5, (13-11).

Wayne Ferreira/Yevgeny Kafelnikov also made it to the quarter-finals, beating Wayne Arthurs and Cyril Suk 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-8 via a super tie-break.