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"Indian Express" derails

Shailesh Soni

The Indian duo of Bhupathi/Paes lost their second round match at the World Doubles Championships being played at Hartford and were eliminated from the semi-finals.

The Indians, who earlier went down in their first match to Johnson/Montana on Wednesday, lost to the sixth-seeded team of Sandon Stolle and Cyril Suk, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The bad streak that began on Friday the 13th, continues to plague the duo who were beset by physical trouble. This time, they started well, and seemed to hold their service games well, and got the break in the 7th game off Cyril Suk's serve.

But the second time Leander went up to serve, it was clear that things were going downhill as after going up to 30-0 he had to fight off a break point at 30-40. But he held the serve to go up 5-3 in the set. The Indians also had a couple of break chances in the next game off Stolle, but could not convert them. In the next game, Mahesh served off and the Indians took the first set 6-4.

The troubles which showed up in the eighth game of the first set continued in the second set as Leander served the fourth game and allowed Stolle/Suk get the break to fall behind at 1-3. Leander did manage to hold his serve in the 8th game, but Stolle served it off easily to wrap it up with a 6-3 in the second set.

In the third set too, there was no difference and Leander was broken in his very first game to trail behind at 1-3. After that the fight went out of the Indians, and Stolle/Suk went on to wrap up the match.

This was the third match in a row where they have lost steam early in the second set and allowed comeback wins.

Last year, Bhupathi and Paes advanced to the final in their World Championship debut. A strong showing in Hartford could even have moved them past the Dutchmen into the top spot of the ATP doubles rankings.

Meanwhile, the top-seeded Dutch duo of Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis rallied to a three-set victory over Frenchmen Olivier Delaitre and Fabrice Santoro after dropping the first set for a 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 over the seventh seeds, who were denied their second straight upset. The Dutchmen improved to 2-0 in the Green Group and clinched a berth in the semi-finals.

The third-seeded Australian duo of Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge also lost to fall to 0-2 in round-robin play.

The "Woodies" were stung by the fifth-seeded team of Ellis Ferreira and Rick Leach, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 thus the doubles powerhouse were eliminated from semi-final consideration.

Woodforde and Woodbridge are playing in this event for the eighth straight year, having won in 1992 and 1996 and reaching the final in 1993 and 1994. However, they fell to 22-11 all-time in this event and 55-17 this season.

In the final match of the day, the fourth-seeded Canadian duo of Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor beat the eighth-seeded American team of Donald Johnson/Francisco Montana, 6-3, 6-2 to improve to 2-0 in the Gold Group and sealed a semi-final berth.

In the Green Group, Ferreira/Leach and Delaitre/Santoro face each other on Friday, with the winner heading for a semi-final berth. In the Gold Group too, Stolle/Suk and Johnson/Montana are equally placed, with the winners of their match on Friday also going into the semi-finals.

Sunday's final is a best-of-five affair.