The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Leander and Mahesh begin with a bang

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 31, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Leander and Mahesh begin with a bang

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, JULY 30. When they are together, can good times be far behind?

It was back to the old times, when winning was made to look so easy, as Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi warmed up for the challenges ahead with a clinical 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Gaston Etlis and Martin Rodriguez of Argentina in the doubles second round of the $2.56 million ATP Masters series tennis tournament in Toronto, Canada, on Friday morning, Indian time.

It was the first match for Leander and Mahesh as a pair on the Tour after their title winning effort in May 2002 in Mallorca, Spain. The two had since then been playing together only in the Davis Cup matches apart from joining hands for the Asian Games doubles gold medal in Busan, Korea, in 2002.

In effect, in the intervening 27 months, the two had played only eight matches together, four of them on Davis Cup duty, though Leander and Mahesh had otherwise been busy winning titles with their regular partners David Rikl of the Czech Republic and Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

The chemistry

They had won all those eight matches in that period of separation, hardly dropping a set or two on the way. The chemistry is permanent and time apparently cannot wash away their mutual understanding on a tennis court. Never mind which direction they head off the court, or whether there is a meeting point outside those clearly drawn lines.

"It was pretty good to start off with a win like that against a top team," said Mahesh, quite enthused about the bright start.

Of course, it was not a surprise that the two played so well against a good team, for both Leander and Mahesh had been hitting the ball nicely of late, and had in fact, won a title each in Switzerland and Sweden the same week earlier this month.

Thereafter, the two did the wise thing by taking two weeks off, keeping the Olympics in mind. Leander had been putting many weeks in a row in his attempt to defend the points and possibly push his ranking up, so that the two would be seeded higher in Athens. Thus, he was scheduled to play another tournament in Stuttgart, Germany, but had to concede at 3-5 as his partner Rikl took ill.

Though these are early days, to judge their form as a combination, as the two themselves are yet to gauge their skilful ability to negotiate the draw in a hard tournament like the Masters series event, it can be said with conviction that the signs are good. They are likely to meet the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, the world's No. 1 team in the quarterfinals, and that match could give an indication of the turn of things to come.

Leander and Mahesh had reached Toronto a few days back and have been training together with two sessions of work-out every day, in rain and shine. They will have the advantage of having to play one match on Friday evening, while their opponents would have to first play a round in the morning before facing the Indian pair.

"Basically we are not worried as to how well we do in the two tournaments this fortnight, because the whole focus is on preparing for the Olympics. Of course, the more matches we play, the better for us," said Mahesh.

The sixth-seeded Indian pair, that had enjoyed a bye in the first round, will take on the winner of the match featuring the Bryan brothers against Jared Palmer of the US and Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic, in the quarterfinals.

A good season

It has been a good season for both Leander and Mahesh. It has indeed been a splendid effort on the part of Leander to have bounced back into the circuit with such energy, after having lost many months to a scary brain lesion last year.

The Atlanta Games bronze medallist, Leander, reached the final of the mixed doubles event with the legendary Martina Navratilova on return at the Australian Open to announce his arrival. He has also won two titles from three finals on the Tour this season, to take his tally to 29 titles from 43 finals.

Mahesh has had it much better so far this season, as he has won four titles including the Masters Series event in Rome, in taking his career tally to 35 titles from 57 finals. He is actually the partial defending champion, as Mahesh had won the title in Toronto with Max Mirnyi last year. Mirnyi is playing with Jonas Bjorkman and is seeded second. Actually, both Leander and Mahesh had won their first Masters series title, then called as Super-9, in Canada in 1997, the year when they won their maiden Tour title in Chennai.

From that angle, the duo could not have chosen a better place to get back together so that they could do some serious business at the Athens Olympics.

If anything, Leander and Mahesh promise to revive some spectacular memories.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport