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Golden double for Paes, Bhupathi

Click for bigger picture  Pic: Alex Livesey/Allsport

Two years ago, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes said that their goal was to be the best doubles pairing in the world.

To most, that sounded like an unattainable dream, given the presence of the legendary Woodies, and the Paul Haarhuis-Jacco Eltingh pairs in the fray.

Two years down the line, the Indian aces -- 'Indian Express', to their fans -- have delivered, and how!

Click for bigger picture  Pic: Clive Brunskill/Allsport

They started the year reaching the final of the Australian Open -- but lost. 'They choke on the big stage,' critics said then. Came the French Open, and the pair landed their first Grand Slam title. 'Wimbledon will be the big test,' went the critics -- mindful perhaps of the fact that on grass, the Indian pair had exited as early as the first and second rounds, in the preceeding years.

So now they have the Wimbledon title as well, thanks to a 6-7(10), 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4) win over Paul Haarhuis and Jared Palmer.

Click for bigger picture  Pic: Alex Livesey/Allsport

The first set was pretty even, with both teams holding on to their serves with relative ease. The portents were there, though, as it was the Indians who faced two break chances which they staved off. However, their service games were in some slight trouble, and the Palmer-Haarhuis combine capitalised in the tiebreaker, pulling it off at 12-10 to jump into an early lead.

Being down a set appears to agree with the Indians -- they had found themselves in that position in the quarters and semis as well, and gone on to pull off fine wins. Typically, they take a set to find their feet, get their coordination going -- and the final was no exception, as Paes and Bhupathi being playing noticeably better in set two.

Click for bigger picture  Pic: Clive Mason/Allsport

Games went with serve till the 6th game, when Paes-Bhupathi found themselves with their first break opportunity. Palmer and Haarhuis, serving at 15-40, pulled one back but the Indians converted the second break point to go up 3-2.

The Palmer-Haarhuis combo tried to claw back into the game, attacking the Indians on serve in the 7th, but Paes and Bhupathi staved off the threat with some superb net play. One facet of the Indians has been the speed with which they come in behind their serves, to take complete control at the net, and that was in evidence here.

Click for bigger picture  Pic: Clive Mason/Allsport

The third set went the way of the second. Slipping smoothly into the 'I' formation they appear to have favoured throughout this tournament, they held serve with ease, and got their big chance in the 5th game, again getting two break points and converting the second. From then on, they merely needed to hold serve to take the set and jump into a 2-1 lead.

The Indians had been pushed into five setters in both the quarters and the semis, but this time round, with their first ever title on grass within sniffing distance, they seemed in no mood for such last ditch heroics. Though in the 4th set their first serves weren't jelling as much as they would have liked, their nerve held and so did their confidence, a noticeable feature of their play all through Wimbledon fortnight.

The first six games went with serve, before Paes and Bhupathi got a sniff of a chance in game 7. The Indians in fact took their opponents to three deuces, but failed to convert the break opportunity they had.

In their turn, the Indians faced some heavy pressure on serve in game 12, but staved off the threat after being taken to two deuces. Holding on to their serve, the Paes-Bhupathi pair took the set into the tie-break. Up a mini-break at 3-1, the Indians were held to 3-3, then 4-4, before they upped their game another notch or two to take the next three points on the run, and with them, the set, the match, and the glory.

Statistics-wise, the Indians managed to land only 55% of their first serves as against 72% for the Haarhuis-Palmer pair. Paes and Bhupathi converted 75% of their good first serves into points, while the Palmer-Haarhuis combo managed to convert 83% of their own first serves.

Paes and Bhupathi however had a 65% conversion rate on second serves as against 54% for their opponents, and the fact that the Indians won a large number of second serve points -- 39 to 19 by their opponents -- made the real difference in the end.

Another key element in their performance lay in the fact that the Indians were constantly attacking, forcing five break points and converting two, while Haarhuis-Palmer managed to force only three break opportunities, without converting even one of them.

Click for bigger picture  Pic: Alex Livesey/Allsport

The Indians had three aces and 8 double fauls as against 9 aces and five double faults by the opponents. Further, Paes-Bhupathi won 138 points in the match, against 131 to their opponents.

What these stats cumulatively indicate is that it was a gritty, hang tough performance. Not their best performance on serve perhaps, but the Indians compensated with scintillating net play.

This has been a great Wimbledon for the Indians, netting them 964 points including 194 bonus points. They now have two Grand Slam titles on the trot, a 12-0 winning streak (they in fact have a 16-1 record at this point, for the year), and total prize money of 186,420 pounds.

Most interestingly, Paes and Bhupathi need just under 100 points to log 5000 on the ATP scale -- a very rare achievement. To put that in context, they have a lead of over 1200 points over their nearest rivals, and in fact only a couple of other pairings have managed to top even the 3000 mark this year.

And those statistics speak of an incredible, almost unparalleled domination of the event by the two Indians.

Click for bigger picture  Pic: Clive Mason/Allsport

Leander Paes in fact has scaled new heights in endurance. Half an hour after finishing the doubles final, he was back on court to play an hour long semifinal in the mixed doubles event and a short while thereafter, he was back again for the finals of that event -- which famously fetched him and Lisa Raymond another title, the two downing the third seeded pair of Jonas Bjorkman and Anna Kournikova 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

In other words, Paes played 18 sets of tough tennis in 2 days, 25 sets in the last three days. Which, by any yardstick, is an incredible feat of endurance.

Less than 24 hours later, Leander is already in Newport, to defend the singles title he won last year. After this incredible run, it is rather difficult to imagine just how much of an effort he will be able to put into his title defence -- but then, with Leander, you never know, do you?

EARLIER REPORTS:
Paes makes history, wins 2 Wimbledon titles
A dream comes true for the Indian duo

SURFBOARD:
• Another Indian Slam
• India's Bhupathi, Paes win second-straight Grand Slam
• Bhupathi, Paes capture men's doubles title
• India still dominant in doubles
• French Open Champs Bhupathi/Paes Take Doubles Crown
• Mahesh Bhupathi: Profile
• Leander Paes: Profile
• Wimbledon Doubles Roll of Honor