The Hindu : Bhupathi moves closer to No. 1 spot

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Bhupathi moves closer to No. 1 spot

NEW DELHI OCT. 21. When the country calls, it is tough to say `No'. That has been the plight of Mahesh Bhupathi who won his 31st career doubles title with Max Mirnyi of Belarus in Madrid on Sunday.

Mahesh and Mirnyi are just 24 points away from taking over as the No. 1 team in the world, from the Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike. The duo has 878 points to the 902 by the Bryan brothers, and are a good distance ahead of the ones who are trying to catch up with them, like Mark Knowles of Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada (745) and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Todd Woodbridge of Australia (726).

In fact, it was the eighth Masters series title for Mahesh with the other five having come in Hamburg (2002), Cincinnati (2001), Rome and Paris (1998) and Montreal (1997).

It has been a fabulous season with Mirnyi for Mahesh, as the duo won five titles from nine finals, with the other four having come at Estoril, Monte Carlo, Montreal and Moscow. The Indo-Belarussian pair had lost in the final of Wimbledon apart from the Masters series event in Hamburg, the Queen's Club tournament in London and the Tour event in Vienna. In the Rome and Cincinnati Masters series events, the pair had made it to the semifinals.

Having reached the quarterfinals of the French Open and the US Open for an overall healthy record, Mahesh has been able to take his year's prize money collection to $436,448, and the career earnings to $3,118.060, one big cheque away from matching the career collection of $3,190,726 by Leander Paes.

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