The Hindu : Sport : Paes and Zimonjic win at Barcelona

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005

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Paes and Zimonjic win at Barcelona

Special Correspondent

— File photo: R. Ragu

FRUITFUL PARTNERSHIP: The Leander Paes-Nenad Zimonjic pair now has three titles to its name, and more can be expected.

NEW DELHI: Leander Paes and his Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic took their second title in two weeks, winning the Open Seat Godo in Barcelona on Sunday, beating the Spanish duo of Rafael Nadal and Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

Nadal had earlier beaten the former world No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-3 in the singles final, to take the title without dropping a set along the way.

Number 33 for Paes

For Paes and Zimonjic, this win followed their triumph at the Masters Series event at Monte Carlo last week. This was their third career title as a team. Their first title was in Delray Beach in 2003. With this win, Paes has taken his career tally to 33 doubles titles.

Nadal and Lopez had done a lot of hard work in reaching the final. The Spaniards had beaten the top-seeded Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley of Australia in the quarterfinals after taking out the eighth seeded Israeli pair of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in a tough three-setter in the second round. Nadal has three doubles titles to go with his five singles titles.

Paes and Zimonjic had relatively easier time. After getting the benefit of a walk-over from the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, in the final at Monte Carlo, it was smooth sailing for the duo at Barcelona, except for a three-setter against the sixth-seeded Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.

Finding form

Having missed a few tournaments after pulling out with a twisted ankle in Sydney before the Australian Open this season, it has been a welcome return to form for Paes. His beat performances before this fortnight had come in Chennai, where he made semifinals, and in the Masters Series event at Indian Wells where he had reached the quarterfinals.

The best thing about Paes finding form is that he would be in excellent shape for the Davis Cup Asia Oceania group `I' second round tie against Uzbekistan, to be played in Jaipur from April 29 to May 1.

There is no doubt that the Uzbekistan team cannot be taken lightly, as the team had beaten Indonesia in Indonesia, with the 18-year-old Denis Istomin winning the decisive fifth rubber after the Uzbeks had trailed 1-2 going into the final day.

Hence, Paes may have to return to singles play in Davis Cup though Harsh Mankad and Prakash Amritraj had handled the challenge competently against the Chinese in New Delhi in the Davis Cup first round zonal tie last month.

"I have a 16-year advantage over them. When I play regular doubles, I am physically fit to play five sets of singles," Paes said during the tie against China, when queried as to how would he be able to reclaim his singles spot in the squad while not playing singles on the professional Tour.

Istomin has beaten Harsh twice in two meetings this season in Futures tournaments and the grass courts at the Jai Club in Jaipur may be quick and to the liking of the young Uzbeks who would be tempted to swing their racquets freely.

The master of Davis Cup play with an impressive 45-21 singles record and an overall win-loss record of 72-30, Paes needs two more wins to match Brazilian Tomas Koch's record. Paes figures as ninth best in the all-time list, but is streets ahead of the rest of the active players.

More than the records, it is the World Group play-off that beckons Paes and company. Having built the team nicely and improved its depth by placing faith on the youngsters, he would only love to see them face the challenge at the next level than be restricted to zonal competition.

The general may have to lead from the front this time, as he has done over the years, than settling for watching from the sidelines as his lieutenants do the job.

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