Paes-Vesnina lose Australian Open mixed doubles final

Melbourne: A second title eluded Leander Paes at this year's Australian Open as he and Elena Vesnina ended runners-up in the mixed doubles event after being outplayed by Horia Tecau and Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the summit clash in Melbourne on Sunday.

The fifth-seeded Indo-Russian pair lost 3-6, 7-5, 3-10 to the eighth-seeded Romanian-American combination in one hour and 48 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena.

Paes and Vesnina hit 14 unforced errors to their opponents' 20, but their opponents smashed 34 winners, which in the end made all the difference. The No.5 seeds also failed to capitalise on the seven break-points on offer, converting only three.

AP Photo

The 38-year-old Paes was chasing a rare feat of winning two Grand Slam titles in the same tournament for the second time in his career, but fell at the final hurdle. In the 1999 Wimbledon, he had won both the men's doubles (with Mahesh Bhupathi) and mixed doubles (Lisa Raymond) titles.

Earlier on Saturday, Paes had won the men's doubles title with Czech Radek Stepanek to complete a career Grand Slam.

It was Paes' fourth Australian Open mixed doubles final, having won two and lost two. Overall, Paes has six mixed doubles titles, with the French Open trophy the only one missing from his Slam cabinet.

The combination of Tecau's strong serve and Mattek's stunning and powerful ground strokes proved too hot to handle for Paes and Vesnina. Mattek hit some breathtaking winners, especially with her crushing forehand, while Tecau hardly erred on his serve.

Mattek and Tecau made a strong start to the match as they broke Paes and Vesnina in the second game to take the lead. Mattek returned well and played aggressively. One of her lobs and then a winner by Tecau earned them three break-points straightaway. They broke Paes' serve when the Indian fired a backhand into net.

Paes and Vesnina broke back immediately but Vesnina could not hold serve and they trailed 1-3, which became 1-4 when Tecau held his own in the next game. Paes finally held his serve, albeit after saving three break-points, when Vesnina hit a volley winner on Tecau's return. But there was nothing to worry their rivals as they had a comfortable lead, and Tecau served out the set with ease when Vesnina hit a backhand to net.

An early break on Vesnina's serve and an easy hold by Tecau again put them up 2-0 in the second set and the eighth-seeded duo led 4-2 at one stage.

However, a seven-minute break due to drizzle changed the complexion of the match. Perhaps the rhythm of Tecau and Mattek got disturbed and they began to commit a lot of unforced errors.

Mattek was broken in the eighth game and the scores were level. Vesnina served impressively in the ninth game to lead 5-4. The pair broke Vesnina for the second time to take the second set and force a match tie-breaker.

The momentum shifted yet again in favour of Mattek and Tecau following the amazing first point. Mattek ran down the court on her right, just avoided colliding with an umpire, but succeeded in hitting a stunning winner. From there, Mattek and Tecau dominated the proceedings, not letting their hard work go down the drain.

"I almost dove into the crowd," Mattek-Sands said with a laugh.

Tecau then hit an ace and Mattek-Sands a soft drop volley to give the pairing a 3-0 lead. They were never challenged the rest of the way.

It was the first Grand Slam victory for the 26-year-old Mattek-Sands, known as much for her eccentric on-court attire as her tennis. She didn't disappoint in the final, wearing a lime, one-sleeve top, black skirt, black knee-high socks, purple streaks in her hair and her regular eye black on her cheeks.

Tecau, dressed more conservatively in a black T-shirt and shorts, also captured his first Grand Slam title. He has lost twice before in the men's doubles final at Wimbledon.

Leander Paes completes long-awaited career Grand Slam in doubles

Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek won 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 over defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan. (AFP Photo)

BANGALORE: Leander Paes, the 38-year-old livewire, lit Melbourne Park with his sparkling play on Saturday night, to clinch his first men's doubles title at the Australian Open and in the process completed a long-awaited career Grand Slam in the doubles.

In the title round, Paes, partnering Czech strongman Radek Stepanek, stopped the top-seeded defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States, who were on a 23-match winning streak in Melbourne. Paes and Stepanek won 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 win in 84-minutes. The champions, playing just their fourth tournament together, took home $454,500, while the Bryans, five-time champions here, settled for $227,250.

Paes, who thanked his partner for, "putting me on your shoulder and carrying me through this week", added, "I've lost three Grand Slam finals to the brothers and you can imagine how I felt coming out today to play them. Two weeks ago in Sydney, they gave us a hiding. I have the greatest respect for Mike and Bob, who are one of the finest ambassadors of the game."

Paes, who clinched his seventh Grand Slam men's doubles title on Saturday, applauded the Czech-born American legend Martina Navratilova, who was at courtside cheering the Indian. He called Navratilova an inspiration. "I've learned so much from you in life," he said.

The Paes-Stepanek friendship, which was on display through the final, was further underlined when the 33-year-old Czech, a former top-10 singles player, presently ranked 92 in doubles, said, "I know what this title means to Leander. He has won all the other Grand Slams, this one was the one missing from his trophy cabinet, I am glad I was able to help him win today."

If Paes, having finished runners-up in Melbourne on three occasions, including last year, when he and Mahesh Bhupathi fell to the Bryans in the final, was the difference between the four men on the court, Stepanek, seeking his first Grand Slam title, held his end up wonderfully, especially at the net. From the baseline, the Czech, ranked 31 in singles, was relentless.

Seventh Heaven

Following is the list of Leander Paes' Grand Slam men's doubles triumphs:

1999 French Open (with Mahesh Bhupathi): bt Goran Ivanisevic (Cro) & Jeff Tarango (US) 6-2, 7-5

1999 Wimbledon (with Bhupathi): bt PauHaarhuis (Hol) & Jared Palmer (US) 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6

2001 French Open (with Bhupathi): bt Petr Pala & PaveVizner (Cze) 7-6, 6-3

2006 US Open (with Martin Damm): bt Jonas Bjorkman (Swe) & Max Mirnyi (Blr) 6-7, 6-4, 6-3

2009 French Open (with Lukas Dlouhy): bt Wesley Moodie (RSA) & Dick Norman (Bel) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2

2009 US Open (with Dlouhy): bt Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) & Mark Knowles (Bah) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

2012 Australian Open (with Radek Stepanek): bt Bob & Mike Bryan 7-6, 6-2

Mixed Doubles titles : 6 (3 Wimbledon, 2 Australian Open, 1 US Open)

Paes-Bhupathi suffers shocking defeat at French Open

Paris: India's doubles exponents Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi failed to get a measure of Australians Stephen Huss and Ashley Fisher and bowed out 6-7(7), 4-6 of the second round of French Open men's doubles here Saturday.

The third-seeded Indians could not break the Australians even once during the 92-minute clash. Huss and Fisher, on the other hand, were nimble-footed and sharp with their groundstrokes. They dominated the frequent net sparring and also served better, double-faulting only once in the entire match while the Indians had four of them.

In the first set, both teams served strong to enforce a tie-breaker. The Indians had two set points but failed to convert. A superb backhand volley by Huss gave the Australians their first set points and they sealed the set when Bhupathi's forehand sailed long.

Huss and Fisher carried the momentum in the second game and broke Paes' serve in the seventh game. They soon served out the set and the match.

The third-seeded Indian pair had been the champions here twice--1999, 2001. They split in 2002. They reunited this year in Chennai Open in their quest to win the only Grand Slam missing from their cabinet, the Australian Open. They reached the final in Melbourne but lost to Bryan brothers.

After their split, Paes won here for the third time with Czech Lukas Dlouhy in 2009. —IANS

French Open: Paes-Bhupathi, Bopanna-Qureshi advance, Somdev exits

Paris: India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi advanced to the men's doubles second round along with compatriot Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi but it was the end of the road for Somdev Devvarman in the French Open tennis here Thursday.

Third-seeded Paes and Bhupathi overcame a set loss to defeat Germans Tommy Haas and Philipp Petzschner 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. They now play Australians Ashley Fisher and Stephen Huss.

Bopanna and Qureshi, seeded fifth, defeated Italians Andreas Seppi and Simone Vagnozzi, 6-3, 6-2. The India-Pakistan pair now plays Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina and Kei Nishikori of Japan.

Somdev, who is already out of the singles first round, partnering Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei went down to Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Feliciano Lopez 3-6, 4-6. — IANS

French Open: Paes, Bhupathi in mixed doubles second round

Paris: India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi with their respective partners advanced to the second round of French Open mixed doubles here Wednesday.



The seventh seeded pair of Paes and Czech Iveta Benesova defeated France's Aravane Rezai and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgria 6-3, 6-1.

They now await the winner of the match between India's Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna and Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei and Marcin Matkowski of Poland.

In contrast, the fifth-seeded pair of Bhupathi and China's Jie Zheng had to dig deep to beat Czech Petra Kvitova and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukrain 6-7(3), 6-0, 10-8.

They now play the winner of the match between Czech Klara Zakopalova and Frantisek Cermak and Rennae Stubbs of Australia and Marcelo Melo of Brazil. —IANS

French Open: Paes-Bhupathi seeded 3rd, Bopanna-Qureshi 5th

Paris: India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have been seeded third in the French Open tennis men's doubles and face Germany's Tommy Haas and Philipp Petzschner in the first round.


Mahesh Bhupathi (left) and Leander Paes

India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Quereshi have got the fifth seeding. They take on Italians Andreas Seppi and Simone Vagnozzi.

Also in the fray is Somdev Devvarman, who is partnering Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei. They open against Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Feliciano Lopez.

In the women's doubles, India's Sania Mirza and Russia's Elena Vesnina are seventh-seeded and they begin their campaign against Russians Vera Dushevina and Ekaterina Makarova. —IANS

Paes-Bhupati miss Aus Open title again, lose the final

MELBOURNE: The Australian Open trophy continued to elude Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi as the re-united 'Indian Express' could not stop Mike and Bob Bryan from scoring a hat-trick of titles at the Melbourne Park here today. The third seeded Indian pair, which united after nine years with an aim to complete their career Slam, lost 3-6 4-6 to the top seeded American twins in the summit clash of the men's doubles event which lasted a little over one hour.

The Bryan brothers won their fifth Australian Open trophy but it slipped out of the hands of Paes and Bhupathi for the second time, having lost the title clash back in 1999. They reached the final here with different partners after separating but neither of the two players could complete the career Slam.

Paes made the final with Czech Republic's Martin Damm in 2006 while Bhupathi ended runners-up with Bahamas' Mark Knowles in 2009. However, it is a fabulous start for the Indian pair in the 2011 season as they had won the Chennai Open early this month. Paes and Bhupathi last played at a Grand Slam together in 2002 when they lost in the second round. Bhupathi said he would continue playing with Paes in the remaining season.

"There is a reason why Mike and Bob are number one team. When they have a first serve percentage of 83, it is impossible to beat them. I thank my partner (Paes), it took the best team in the planet to stop this train. Looking forward to playing with you a lot more this year," Bhupathi said. In today's final, the Bryan brothers dominated as they served well and were miser on the unforced errors' count but had the Indians converted the break chances in the very first game of the match, it might have been different.

Left-handed Bob served extremely well after being down 0-40 to lead 3-2 on serve. The sixth game, in which the two pairs played a stunning 20-shot rally, turned the tide in favor of the defending champions as the Americans converted their first of the two break chances off Paes' serve. It was easy for the Americans from there on as Bob served out the set after just 29 minutes of play.

The Indian duo did well to save a break point in the fifth game of the second set but Bhupathi dropped his serve in the ninth game to hand the Americans the advantage. Bob served out the set, match and the championship in the next game after saving another break point. -PTI

Australian Open: Time to create History

Paes - Bhupati to play Australian Open Doubles Final today.

You can call it a grand re-union of the greatest Lawn-tennis duo that India has ever produced. After a break of nine long years, the Indian tennis veterans Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes are back together to recreate the magic. They have already showed their powerful chemistry on the court by clinching their first doubles title on their reunion and fifth at the ATP Chennai Open this year. What next for this great Indian pair, popularly called the "Indian Express", is the first Grand Slam of the Year, the Australian Open.

Paes and Bhupathi played with determination to start the season and have stormed into the Australian Open men's doubles final. If they beat hattrick-chasing American twins Bob and Mike Bryan in the final today, the dashing duo will win the only Grand Slam title missing from their list of achievements. Will the trademark chest bumps create the magic once again? Will the aggression, which had once made them a feared doubles pair, bring us that missing laurel?

Let's stroll down the memory lane and recall the success saga of Paes and Bhupathi. It was in 1997 Chennai Open when the pair won their first ATP doubles title and then went on to write a number of chapters in tennis history. It was in Chennai only that the duo won three back to back titles from 1997 to 1999. The year 1999 was their most successful year in Grand Slam history, winning the French Open and Wimbledon titles.

In 2002, the pair made a successful comeback in Chennai by winning the title once again, but then the unnamed split happened and from such a high, the relationship between the pair gradually declined and reached a point of no communication. The exact cause or causes for the rift has never been known so far though various factors like ego clashes, each player garnering more attention than the other have been rumoured over the years. But the lure of a much awaited win at the Rod Laver Arena seems to be stronger than the dislike, and the dominating double partners are back to rule the court.

Paes and Bhupathi forged a formidable partnership in the late 90s until 2001-02, before they split up as a pair and decided to go on their own individual courses. But both of them had struggled with their doubles campaign with other players. While Paes partnered with players like Sebastian Lareau of Canada and Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti, Bhupathi tried his hand with players like Belarussian Max Mirnyi, Mark Knowles of Bahamas and Andrew Kratzmann of Australia. Although they have achieved decent success with their other double partners, but the chemistry they shared with each other as a team was incomparable.

Paes showed promise early in his career by winning titles at the Junior U.S. Open and the Junior Wimbledon. He rose to the number 1 in the world in the junior rankings. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he beat Fernando Meligeni to win the Bronze medal. However, his journey being a single player was not that great. Like Paes, Bhupathi also had greater success in doubles as compared to singles as he won only 10 singles matches, while lost 28 matches, so far in his career. But together these two Indians have made remarkable records and hence, regarded as one of the best doubles team in the world of tennis.

Today, when the Indian duo will take on the Bryans, the crowd will surely do their bit in providing the impetus. Inspiration will come from a loud 'Come on' and the whole India will hold its breath to see whether the magical pair has the last laugh, bringing home the victory in the golden hour.

Paes-Bhupathi in third round

MELBOURNE: Indian tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi registered a straight set victory over Argentina's Juan Monaco and Feliciano Lopez of Spain 7-6 (2) 6-4 to advance to the third round of the Australian Open men's doubles event, here today.

In pic: Feliciano Lopez accused Leander Paes (in pic) of trying to provoke him and his partner Juan Monaco during their second round match at the Australian Open @ PTI

Paes and Bhupathi, who rallied from one set down to beat Ivo Karlovic and Dusan Vemica in their first round match here a couple of days back, came up with a much improved performance today. The "Indian Express" duo could successfully put 76 per cent of their first serves in and looked in really good shape as they managed to get the better of their opponents in little over one and a half hours.

Although, the Indian doubles specialists faced a stiff challenge from Monaco and Lopez in the first set but the pair of Lee-Hesh brought into fore all their experiences to finally prevail over them with a tight 7-6 win. In the second set, however, the third-seeded Indians did not have much trouble as the two comfortably outplayed their unseeded Spanish-Argentine pair to steal the set 6-4 and put themselves on course for their maiden Australian Open title.

Paes and Bhupathi will next face the Spanish duo of Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers in the third round. -PTI

Australian Open: Paes-Bhupathi, Bopanna-Qureshi enter men's doubles 2nd round

MELBOURNE: Indian tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi entered the second round of the men's doubles in Australian Open after they rallied from a set down to beat Ivo Karlovic and Dusan Vemica 5-7 6-3 6-0, here today.
In pic: Leander Paes (l) and Mahesh Bhupati

In another match, India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi outplayed the Brazilian pair of Franco Ferreiro and Andre Sa 6-3 6-0 to advance to the next round. For the "Indian Express" duo of Paes and Bhupathi, this is their first victory together at Grand Slam after a nine- year gap.

The third-seeded pair, who teamed up together after almost a decade in a bid to add the only Grand Slam title missing in their cupboard, faced a scare in the first set of the opening round as they went down 5-7.

However, the Indian doubles specialists did not waste much time to get into the groove in the second, running away to a 6-3 win. The last set saw Lee-Hesh toying with the Croat-Serbian pair before they wrapped it up 6-0 to cross the first hurdle at the year's first Grand Slam, in a contest that lasted over one and a half hours. Paes and Bhupathi had last played in a Grand Slam in Australian Open 2002. And in all these years till 2011 they just paired together to represent the country in the Davis Cup, the Asian Games and the Olympics.

Paes-Bhupathi will meet the winner of the match between Spain's Feliciano Lopez and Juan Monaco of Argentina and the Australian pair of Marinko Matosevic and John Millman in the second round. Meanwhile, "Indo-Pak Express", the runners-up of last year's U S Open, had a very easy outing today.

The 10th-seeded pair hardly spared a chance for its unseeded opponents to pose any threat, as they breezed away to seal the match in their favour in just 49 minutes. Bopanna-Qureshi will next play Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Arnaud Clement. -PTI

Asian Games: Somdev-Sanam win gold, Sania-Vishnu settles for silver

Guangzhou, Nov 22 (PTI)

Somdev Devvarman today became the first Indian to reach the men's singles final in the history of the Asian Games before winning the men's doubles gold with Sanam Singh but Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan had to be content with a silver in the tennis competitions, here today. It was an extremely fruitful day for Somdev as he inched closer to a historic singles gold after piping Japan's Tatasuma Ito 6-2 0-6 6-3 in the semifinals to set up the summit-clash with top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. Later, he and Sanam Singh combined superbly to win first gold medal for India in the tennis event in this edition of the Games as the sixth seed pair shocked second seed Chinese Gong Maoxin and Li Zhe 6-3 6-7(4) 10-8 in the final.


Somdev Devvarman (R) and Sanam Krishan Gold medalist

However, gold eluded Sania yet again as she and Vishnu Vardhan, seeded sixth, lost the mixed doubles final 6-4 1-6 2-10 to second seed Taipei pair of Chan Yung Jan and Yang Tsung Hua. Somdev and Sanam's gold medal feat assumes significance as India landed here without star doubles pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, gold medallists of the last edition at Doha in 2006, who opted to play in World Tour Finals in London. Rohan Bopanna is also missing from the Indian line-up though he had failed to qualify for the World Tour Finals.
Sania had yesterday settled for a bronze medal in the women's singles. At Doha Games she had won silver in singles and had won a gold in mixed doubles with Paes. Somdev, a gold medalist at Commonwealth Games, continued to be India's flag bearer in the men's singles. Before him, no Indian had managed to enter men's singles final and India had won only three bronze medals in men's singles in Asian Games. Leander Paes had won it in 1994 in Hiroshima Games and Mahesh Bhupathi and Prahlad Srinath had won it during 1998 Games in Bangkok. Earlier, on the day, in the baseline slugfest that lasted almost two hours, second seed Somdev pocketed the opening set against Ito, ranked 195, with a measure of comfort but was then blown off the court by the fourth seed Ito, who clinched the second 6-0.
Things were looking difficult for the Indian world no 106 when he and his rival traded service breaks in the first four games. Somdev then staged an excellent rally under pressure by saving two break points in the fifth game. That was the turning point as Somdev regained poise and broke his rival for the third time, this time decisively, before taking the set 6-3. Istomin was too good for third-seeded Japanese opponent Go Soeda and completed a facile 6-1 6-0 victory.