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The Indian challenge at the US Open 2003 effectively crumbled on Friday as the last two players bowed their way out, one in rather unflattering circumstances.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi crashed to a 2-6, 2-6 to Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro, both of France, at the Louis Armstrong Stadium while Sania Mirza fell in the second round of the girls' singles to Emma Laine of Finland 2-6, 4-6. Notably, the doubles match lasted barely 45 minutes, a clear reflection of the surprise that the French duo took Bhupathi-Mirnyi by.
Circumstance also had a major role to play through the Open, what with rain delays and venue changes that kept most players off-rhythm for the greater part of this week. In the final reckoning, the organisers decided to sacrifice the boys and girls doubles due to rain delays.
The cancellation meant that Mirza, who won this year's doubles at Wimbledon didn't get a shot at the title, nor did Karan Rastogi and Somdev Dev Varman, who were seeded third in the boys' doubles, even though they lost their singles matches in the first round.
Even before the Open started, Leander Paes had opted out due to a serious brain lesion that meant his absence in the mens' and mixed doubles. In the second round, Bhupathi's mixed doubles partner Paola Suarez of Argentina opted out since she wanted to concentrate on her singles matches, where she had made the quarter finals. Unfortunately for her, she went down 4-6, 0-6 to Lindsay Davenport who plays Kim Clijsters for a place in the finals.
"It was a bit disappointing but there's nothing you can do about it," Mirza told rediff.com about the doubles' cancellation. As for the singles, Mirza was more accepting of her defeat. "I played well in the second set, but it was just one of those days, we had a good match but she played better."
She also said that it took her some time to adjust to the spin that Laine put into her groundstrokes, especially in the first set. Also, Mirza's first serve, which is fairly new, seems to have let her down a bit, with only a 44 percent success rate, as opposed to the 62 percent of her opponent. She also saved only 2 of 6 break points, while Laine saved 4 of 5, a remarkable 80 percent rate.
In the second set, however, the unseeded Mirza got into her groove and quickly broke Laine to race to a 4-1 lead but could not sustain the pace as she let her 10-seeded opponent break her twice in the seventh and ninth games to reel off five straight games.
In the eight game of the second set, Mirza was also cited for a code violation and penalised one point when she flung her racket to the ground in disgust. "It was one of those things, they happen," she told rediff.com. "But I should have been given a warning at least."
To her credit, though, she saved three of the six deuce points that the game eventually ran into and which Laine eventually held. In the end, it simply wasn't enough for Mirza as Laine broke her in the next game and then held for the match, in the 1 hr 10 min match.
The upset of the day for the Indian contingent, however, remained the top-seeded Bhupathi-Mirnyi collapse to the sixth seeded Llodra-Santoro. At first blush, it appears Bhupathi's serve failed him when he needed it the most. He was crucially broken twice in the first set, and in the first game in the second set. Mirnyi was also broken in the third game of the second set, giving the Frenchmen a 3-0 lead that would prove unassailable.
Once again, the match bears some telling in the statistics. The winners had 6 six aces, the losers only 2; Llodra and Santoro won 73 and 81 per cent of first serve points, Bhupathi and Mirnyi managed 42 and 77 per cent; Llodra and Santoro won 100 and 50 per cent of second serve points, Bhupathi and Mirnyi got 20 and 75 per cent. The Frenchmen obviously also grabbed the only chances they got, convering the only four break points they got.
In the mixed doubles masters, India Davis Cupper Anand Amritraj, partnering Mary Lou Piatek, won the first round 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 beating Tom Gullikson and Lori McNeil, to move into the semifinals.
It remains to be seen if Anand Amritraj, and brother Vijay, who plays the mens' 45 doubles masters with Peter Fleming (who famously partnered John McEnroe for 12 Grand Slam doubles titles) can restore some Indian pride.