Canadian tennis star Frank Dancevic, who along with Stanislas Wawrinka will face star Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi at the Chennai Open, knows that their opening match is a tough one but promised a good fight against the crowd favourites on Monday.
Somdev Devvarman could not qualify for the Wimbledon singles but that did affect his rankings as the Indian rose a rung to career-best 103 in the latest ATP list issued on Monday.
Mahesh Bhupathi and his American partner Liezel Huber have been given the top billing at the mixed doubles event of the French Open while Leander Paes and Cara Black are seeded second.
All eyes will be on veteran Leander Paes, who is the on the cusp of a historic world record in perhaps his last appearance in Davis Cup.
India's No. 1 Somdev Devvarman, who has won two gold medals at the ongoing Asian Games in Guangzhou, has gained a direct entry into the main draw of the men's singles at the ATP Aircel Chennai Open Tennis tournament to be held from January 3-9.
'The Indian Express' will be back on the tracks in 2011 as Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes have decided to reunite in their quest to complete a career Grand Slam at the Australian Open.
The winner of 11 ATP World Tour doubles titles, Poles Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg were off to a great start with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Indo-Czech duo of Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy at the opening day Round Robin match at the 2010 World Tour Finals in London on Sunday.
Amid rising speculation on who is going to partner Sania Mirza at the Rio Olympics, contender Rohan Bopanna says his sole focus now is to maintain his top-10 ranking till the French Open in June. While veteran Leander Paes has already said that he is the ideal partner for Sania, Bopanna said a lot of scenarios can play out before the Rio Games in August. "I will play all the big tournaments there are on the calendar before Rio, starting from Dubai to Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Rome, French Open. The aim is to be in the top-10 till the French Open and we will see who can partner who, be it doubles or mixed doubles. So there is a long way to go before Rio," Bopanna told PTI on Friday.
His recent success on the ITF circuit on Tuesday fetched teenage sensation Yuki Bhambri a place in the Indian Davis Cup squad for the crucial World Group play-off tie against South Africa scheduled September 18 to 20.
Somdev Devvarman rose a rung to 84 while out of action Sania Mirza was static on number 88 in the latest tennis rankings.
The fifth seds were beaten by the unseeded Argentine pair of Gaston Etlis and Martin Rodriguez in the ATP Masters.\n
Beginning their partnership on a fantastic note, Leander Paes and Jurgen Melzer clinched the Shanghai Masters title with a 7-5, 4-6, 10-5 victory over Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in the final in Shanghai on Sunday.
Third seeds Leander Paes and Jurgen Melzer of Austria battled their way into the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, beating Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi on Friday. Paes-Melzer lost the first set, but fought back brilliantly against the younger Indo-Pak combination to win the quarter-final 6-7(6), 7-6(6), 10-4.
India's Davis Cup mates Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna set up a quarter-final clash against each other in the Shanghai Masters after registering wins with their respective partners.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had contrasting results in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters doubles on Wednesday night.
He was expected to give India at least two gold medals for India at the Commonwealth Games but all Leander Paes got was a bronze and that too at the cost of another Indian pair.
A gritty Sania Mirza saved four match points before going down 3-6, 6-2, 6-7 (3) to top seed Anastasia Rodionova in a heart-stopping women's singles final to settle for a silver in the tennis competition of the 19th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza will carry India's gold medal hopes in the tennis event of the Commonwealth Games as both progressed to the singles final even as the star pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi bit the dust in a big upset on Friday.
Tennis stars descended on Kolkata when a prelude to the Indian Premier Tennis League had legends like Martina Navratilova, Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi play in the Tennis Masters on Tuesday.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had things their way as India ruled the tennis courts at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday.
Earlier, compatriots Yuki Bhambri and Somdev Devvarman had also crashed out of the premier grass-court championship.
Top seed Indian men's doubles pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have been handed out an easy draw but Rohan Bopanna and Somdev Devvarman were not as lucky and the duo will have to toil hard when the Commonwealth Games gets underway on Sunday.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi suffered a rare defeat together as they made a shock first-round exit from Thailand Open, the only ATP tournament they played together ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
Somdev Devvarman has a heavy workload to shoulder, as India, sans top doubles player Leander Paes, take on hosts Japan in a bid to re-enter the elite Davis Cup World Group in Tokyo, from Friday
The ever reliable combine of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi ensured India's interest in the Davis Cup World Group play-off in Chennai remained alive with a straight sets win over the Brazilian combine of Bruno Soares and Marcelo Melo on Saturday.
It's a story of a partnership that ensured Indian tennis a brief period of glory before it went awry.\nLeander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi joined forces in the mid-90s, peaked in 1999 - winning two and reaching the finals of all the four majors, inspired hopes among millions of Indians and then went separate ways.
For the first time, three top sportspersons -- boxers M C Mary Kom and Vijender Singh, and wrestler Sushil Kumar -- were selected for the country's highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. While the prestigious award was previously shared by two sportspersons in 1996-97 and 2002-03, Wednesday marked the first time that three were picked for the coveted honour for outstanding performances in 2008-09.
US Open finalist Rohan Bopanna will not figure in doubles in the Davis Cup World Group play-off against Brazil, beginning in Chennai on Friday, as the team has decided to stick with the tried and tested duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.
Indian ace Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy advanced to the doubles semi-finals while it was curtains for compatriots Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna in the Dubai Tennis Championships on Thursday.
Rohan Bopanna achieved his career-best rank of 19 in the doubles ATP chart following his stupendous run at the US Open, where he was the runners-up along with doubles partner Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi.
Courtesy his semi-final appearance at the Aptos Challenger, Somdev Devvarman jumped eight rungs to achieve a career-best singles ranking of 127 on Monday.
Indian ace Leander Paes and his Zimbabwean partner Cara Black suffered a straight-set defeat to Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Mark Knowles and bowed out of the mixed doubles at the US Open in New York on Tuesday. The second seeds, who won the 2010 Wimbledon mixed doubles title, lost 3-6, 4-6 to the German-Bahamian pair in the quarter-finals.
India's Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi advanced to the men's doubles quarter-finals of the US Open with an upset win over second seeded Canadian-Serbian pair of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in New York.
Leander Paes was felicitated by the Bengal Tennis Association on Monday and said he would love to win more Grand Slams.
The Indian ace and Russian partner Vera Dushevina lost to 11th seeds Alisa Kleybanova and Ekaterina Makarova 7-6(6), 2-6, 6-7(3) in a first round match.
Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas yet again failed to click as a team, losing the closely-fought opening round of the ATP Indian Wells Masters to Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki, in Indian Wells
Tennis ace Leander Paes said Russia would be a tough opponent in next month's Davis Cup World Group tie but India are capable of defeating any side in the world in the prestigious team competition.
Defending champions Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy have been seeded third at the men's doubles event of the US Open and the Indo-Czech pair will open its campaign against Czech-Slovakia combo of Martin Damm and Filip Polasek.
Third seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes staged a brilliant comeback to shock top seeds and defending champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan and reach the final of the Western and Southern Open.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi suffered their third defeat in an ATP Masters series final this season, losing the summit clash of the Cincinnati event 3-6, 4-6 to second seeds Mike and Bob Bryan.
