Paes-Bhupathi team returns with a win

Shailesh Soni

The reunion for the 'Indian Express' started off on a winning note on Monday when Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had a straight sets win 6-4, 7-5 over the wildcard pair of J Cerda of Brazil and R Grille of USA in the Hamlet Cup being played at Long Island, New York.

Paes and Bhupathi where playing together for the first time after November last year.

Though it was a straight sets win, it wasn't easy in the second set. The 7-5 score in the second set shows that the Indians raised their game when they needed to close out the match.

The second round opponents for Paes-Bhupathi are yet to be decided. They will face the winner of the first round match between the two Swedish pairs of Nicklas Kulti/Mikael Tillstrom and S Aspelin/J Landsberg.

Tillstrom retired on Monday in the third set of his singles match and does not have the doubles match scheduled for today. Thus the Indians will have rest for two days.

Paes and Bhupathi are in the upper half of the draw with the top-seeded pair of Kulti/Tillstrom and fourth seeds J H Gambill and S Humphries. The bottom half of the draw has the second seeds Damm-Hrbaty and third seeds Carbonnell-Prinosil.

In the latest doubles rankings released on Monday, Paes has fallen out of the top 50 for the first time in over three years. He is at 63 this week with 931 points, as he has only played 10 events in the last 12 months.

Paes has 515 points for the US Open final and 26 for round 2 at Shanghai with Bhupathi last year, 175 and 85 for the Orlando and Bermuda titles with Jan Siemerink, 75 for the round at Indian Wells with Wayne Arthurs, and 40 for the round in Madras with Byron Black.

Bhupathi has played more events (15) and has 1467 points. He is at 31 this week, as he didn't have many points falling off this week from Indianapolis-99 where Paes was a finalist with Delaitre.