Bhupathi-Bopanna knocked out of Chennai Open

Chennai: Top seeded Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the doubles event in the semifinals of the Aircel Chennai Open 2012 after losing to Israel's Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich on Saturday.

The fourth seed Israeli pair came back from a set down to upset the title favourites in tie-breaker 4-6, 6-3, 10-8.

The 34-year-old Erlich slammed a volley from close to the net to return a Bopanna shot from the baseline to enter the final and set up a title clash with either third seeded Indo-Serbian pair of Leander Paes an Janko Tipsarevic or the all-American duo of Rajeev Ram and Scott Lipsky.

In a match that lasted about 90 minutes, the Indian pair wasted a breakpoint in the seventh game of the second set to go 4-3 up, following which Erlich and Ram won three games in succession, including game seven, to wrap up the set 6-3 and take the match into the tie-breaker.

In the tie-breaker, Erlich and Ram took the lead in the fifth point of Bhupathi's serve, when Erlich placed a serve return on the line. They went 6-4 up after Erlich rushed upfield after serving and placed a volley that the Indian pair could not return.

The Israeli pair was stretched in the tie-breaker by Bhupathi and Bopanna, but the latter's weak service returns and backhand returns let the team down.

Erlich and Ram have already made the final of the Chennai Open before, losing to the Spanish pair of Rafael Nadal and Tommy Robredo in the 2004 doubles title clash.

The first set saw both teams hold serve till the fifth game, when Bhupathi and Bopanna finally broke their Israeli opponents after wasting three breakpoints in the same game.

After allowing Ram and Erlich to come back from being 0-40 down, the Indian duo went 3-2 up after Erlich netted a forehand volley from a forward position. However, the Indian pair wasted an opportunity to go up 4-3 in the second set when Bopanna sent a return wide.

The second set saw Ram and Erlich break Bhupathi and Bopanna twice, in game four and eight.

In game four, the Israeli duo, just like their opponents, allowed them to come back into the game from 0-40 down on Bhupathi's serve. They finally broke them when Bhupathi netted a backhand return to gift them the game just after firing an ace to bring Bopanna and himself level to deuce.

In game eight, the Indian duo was broken on Bhupathi's serve as the Israeli pair went 5-3 up, wrapping up the set in the next game when Bhupathi netted a return off Erlich's serve, making it 6-3 and taking the match into the tie-breaker. — PTI

Bhupathi-Vesnina lose Wimbledon mixed doubles final Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/sports/bhupathi-vesnina-lose-wimbledon-mixed-doubles-f

London: India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Vesnina of Russia lost to Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 in the Wimbledon mixed doubles final on Sunday.

Vesnina dropped her serve thrice and that was enough for Melzer and Benesova, seeded ninth, to wrap up the match in less than an hour.

Bhupathi was aiming for his eighth Grand Slam mixed doubles title. He has won with seven different partners. The Indian has won two mixed doubles titles here with Elena Likhovtseva of Russia in 2002 and Mary Pierce of France in 2005.

The Austrian-Czech pair have been in hot form in the tournament and did not lose a single set on their way to the title.

Melzer and Benesova carried on in the same vein against the fourth seeds. They broke Vesnina in the fourth game to go 3-1 up and then held their serve tightly to win the first set.

Vesnina was broken in the third game of the second set with Melzer making some solid returns.

The Indo-Russian pair applied pressure on Benesova's serve in the fourth game but the Czech player came up with an ace at 30-30 and held it for a 3-1 lead.

The Russian's serve was again on target and she was broken in the seventh game. Benesova then served out the match.

French Open: Sania enters doubles quarters, Bhupathi exits

Paris: India's Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina defeated the Spanish pair of Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1 6-4 to qualify for the women's doubles quarterfinals of the French Open tennis here Sunday.

The Indo-Russian duo will now face top seeds Gisela Dulko of Brazil and Italian Flavia Pennetta, who defeated the Italian pair of Sarra Errani and Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-2 in their third round match.

Another Indian, Mahesh Bhupathi, however, bowed out of the mixed doubles event when he and his Chinese partner Jie Zheng lost 6-4 3-6 7-10 to Australian Rennae Stubbs and Brazilian Marcelo Melo in the second round.

Earlier, Bhupathi and Leander Paes crashed out of the men's doubles in the second round. —IANS

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