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Paes goes down to Ivanisevic

Leander Paes' dream at the New Haven Pilot Pen ATP tournament came to an abrupt end when he lost to big serving Croat Goran Ivanisevic in the quarterfinals.

Ivanisevic advanced to the semifinals with a quick straight-set victory over the player who, the day before, had knocked out the event's top seed a day before. He beat Leander in 55 minutes, 6-2, 6-4.

"I was tired after playing both singles and doubles the day before, and could not really get into a groove of chipping and charging and playing my style of tennis,'' said Leander, adding, "The difference was Goran's serve."

Ivanisevic picked up breaks in the fifth and seventh games to take the first set, and then again got a break in the third game of the second set to finish the match in 55 minutes.

"I think I was controling the match from the first point," said Ivanisevic. "I'm playing good tennis right now - the motivation is coming back. I think I'm capable of beating anybody.

"It is tough to keep this momentum going, especially with the way I play," he added. "You know, if I serve good, I don't give him a lot of free points. He was trying to hit winners, but those were going everywhere.''

Ivanisevic will now play defending champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the semifinals. Kafelnikov, the number five seed, defeated no. 13 seed Bohdan Ulihrach 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a match that lasted more than two hours.

"But that is how every match is supposed to be you know, big battle and fortunately, I was able to close it out,'' Kafelnikov said.

After losing the first set to the fleet-footed Czech, the somewhat fatigued Kafelnikov slowed the pace and took control of the match.

"It works successfully because he is the kind of player who likes to dictate the game and be fast on the court,'' Kafelnikov, who is bidding to be the tournament's first back to back winner since Jimmy Connors in 1975 and 1976, said.

Conversely, Richard Krajicek survived a three-set match Friday night against Britain's Tim Henman, winning 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (18-16).

Krajicek, the no. 4 seed, defended eight match points in the tiebreaker and finally won it when Henman returned a serve wide.

The 34-point tiebreaker was the longest on tour for a singles match this year.

"Mentally it's pretty tough,'' Krajicek said. You both feel the same pressure,'' Henman agreed, adding, "I don't think I played a closer match in my career.''

Krajicek had 14 aces to Henman's seven in the 2-hour, 19-minute match. It was the first time in three meetings that he defeated Henman. The difference, he said was the neutral court -- both his losses were in Britain, before Henman's adoring home crowd.

:It was nice that only five or six people are shouting his name instead of the whole stadium, the whole time,'' Krajicek said.

No. 7 seed Karol Kucera defeated Guillaume Raoux 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. Raoux had knocked off defending US Open champion Patrick Rafter, the tournament's no. 2 seed, in the earlier round, and will now face Krajicek in the semifinals.

A day after ousting Rafter, the third-ranked player in the world, Raoux's powerful play was not nearly as effective.

The ferocious forehands and powerful backhands that picked deep corners and hugged baselines for the 6-1 win in the first set started missing after Kucera adjusted by hitting deeper to snarl the Frenchman's baseline game.

"He started to play deeper and stronger,'' said Raoux, who is ranked no. 48 in the world and no. 16 in the tournament. "You have to be 100 per cent, even Sampras has to be 100 per cent to beat this guy.'' It was Kucera's fifth straight win over Raoux.

"If I get good into the rhythm, I can beat him,'' said Kucera, who had made the semifinals of the Australian Open this year with a win over Sampras.

Meanwhile, the New Haven Register celebrated the burial of the three top seeds, in round three, with purple prose. Excerpts:

It was a day that began with a bright yellow happy face painted from one end of the complex to the other ...

"I can't recall seeing (a lineup like this at a Championship Series event)," said Joe Lynch, the ATP Tour's director of media services and operations, who travels to tournaments around the world. "It definitely looks today like a Mercedes Super 9 or Grand Slam event. That's what it is."

The "is" turned past tense in the matter of about an hour when the happy face dropped its jaw ... First Rafter dropped a straight set match to Guillaume Raoux (as in who?) of France, then Sampras dropped a straight set match to Leander Paes of India. There is no confirmation, only rumor, that tournament officials subsequently dropped their lunch.

What next? Was Anna Kournikova, the teen-age sensation, going to reinjure her thumb in Montreal Thursday and pull out of next week's Pilot Pen International women's championship?

"Just tell the tournament director I'm sorry," cracked Raoux at the end of his press conference. "Tell them Leander and I are sorry."

In the post match interview, Leander said he had asked Lleyton Hewitt, who lost to Sampras the day before, for tips and Hewitt told him, 'Just guess one way or other on his serves and go for it'.

"I must have guessed right," quipped Paes, adding that while this may not have been the best tennis he has played, it's the best win of his career. He also said Sampras was a hero for him, for the tennis he plays, and that the win was "fantastic".

Paes talked of how he had decided to come in and attack Sampras. "If you stay back and let Sampras dictate terms, you are going to lose."

This makes Paes one of the few players who have a career win record over Pete, which now reads 1-0.

Both Leander and Mahesh however realize that they need to get back into the groove in the doubles circuit, they need a couple of wins at the US Open before they can start feeling that winning confidence and get back to their chest-butts.

Next week, the Indian pair will be at the "Huggy Bear" pro-am invitational doubles at Long Island, New York. That is also where the ATP tourney will also be simultaneously taking place - Commack, New York.

Leander could not get into the main draw, because the entries closed according to last week's rankings. And the organisers didn't even come up with a wildcard.

Thus, Leander chose to relax and have fun at the pro-am tourney.

So the buddies will face each other in different doubles teams. Leander will accompany Anand Amritraj, while Mahesh will be paired with Vijay Amritraj in one of the richer pro-am tournaments on the circuit.