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Paes/Delaitre go down in RCA final

Shailesh Soni

The top seeded doubles pair of Leander Paes and Olivier Delaitre lost in the final of the RCA championships yesterday. They were beaten by second seeds Paul Haarhuis and Jared Palmer 6-3, 6-4.

Earlier in the semi-finals, Paes/Delaitre defeated the fourth seeded pair of Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge 6-4, 6-3.

In the first set, Paul Haarhuis started serve and quickly found himself down 0-40 after a double-fault and some hard volleys from Delaitre. But Haarhuis/Palmer fought off three break-points in a row and Haarhuis served an ace down the line to hold serve.

After Paes held serve at love, Palmer was down 0-30 following aggressive returns from Paes/Delaitre, who then had a fourth break chance at 30-40. A great top spin lob from Delaitre got them the break in the third game. In game four, a couple of neat defensive lobs from Haarhuis forced Delaitre to a break point at 30-40. After two deuces, Haarhuis and Delaitre had a great volley exchange, which Haarhuis won, and they were all even at 2-2. A jammed shot from the net by Paes forced Haarhuis to deuce. Haarhuis held the serve though.

At 3-4, with Delaitre serving, two volleys from Palmer and a cross-over shot by Haarhuis found Paes/Delaitre down at 0-40. Delaitre seemed to be having trouble with his first serve and they were broken at 30-40. Then at 3-5, Delaitre grilled a powerful backhand down the line to make it 30-30 off Haarhuis serve. After Palmer missed a reaction volley, Paes/Delaitre had a break chance. Delaitre mis-hit a second serve return and it was deuce. Paes took over in the next point and grilled two forehands at Palmer to force advantage out with a chance to turn it around.

A volley netted by Paes and then an ace to the Indian's backhand and it was advantage in. Then Delaitre hit a return wide, and the set was gone at 3-6.

In the first game of the second set, Paes was upset about a bad call on a volley by Delaitre which put them down at 15-40. They fought back to deuce and held after a nice wide serve from Paes for an ace and some good work at the net by Delaitre. After Haarhuis held serve, Delaitre once again was having trouble with his first serve, especially as he was under pressure from Haarhuis' strong returns. He did hold serve, however. Then Paes again came up big on Palmer's serve, with a terrific return at his feet followed by a strong winner off a half-volley pick up from Palmer. Suddenly it was 3-1 in Paes/Delaitre favour. Despite two successive aces by Paes in the next game, they were down a break point after a great Palmer lob behind a rushing Leander-Delaitre. At deuce, Paes double-fauled, but that was follwed by a Palmer mishit for deuce #2. After a backhand overhead from Haarhuis it was a tird break point on Paes, and this time he double-faulted once more, though Delaitre argued the call on the second serve.

It was all on serve again at 3-2. After Haarhuis held at 40-30 to go 3-3, Delaitre was down at 30-40 facing a break (once again after a call that Delaitre argued.

It continued to be a struggle for Delaitre every time he had to serve to Haarhuis, whose low returns were probably the difference today. Paes seemed to be making a few mistakes by this time too, as he missed a couple of makable volleys at 4-4 and then had to serve at Haarhuis at 30-40. He missed the first kick serve wide and knew it was the worst kind of trouble. He threw down a good serve down the middle but Haarhuis still sent a return to his feet to force the break. It was 4-5, and the set was over quickly thereafter at 4-6.

Haarhuis had lost four matches in a row to Paes. After losing to Paes-Bhupathi in the company of Jacco Eltingh, Haarhuis had lost in the company of Galbraith to Paes-Bhupathi at Indian Wells, with Nestor to Paes and Siemerink at Hertogenbosch, and then with Palmer to Paes and Bhupathi at Wimbledon. Thus, Haarhuis was finallly able to beat Paes in the fifth attempt.

In the end it was a rare loss in a final for Paes. Delaitre was having trouble all day with his serve, and Paes was not as sharp as in the semi-final yesterday. It all boiled down to Paes missing his partner Bhupathi.