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January 29, 1998
NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
DEAR REDIFF
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Bhupati-Vis pairing makes Australian Open last four
Mahesh Bhupati appears to have good luck with his lady partners. In 1997, then a relative unknown (he was ranked 53 in doubles at the time), he was rather surprised to find the agent of Japanese Davis Cupper Rika Hiraki approaching him, with an offer to partner her in the mixed doubles event at the French Open at Roland Garros.
The scratch duo, put together an hour before the entries closed, went on to win the tournament -- and, in the process, Bhupati won for India its first Grand Slam title in the event.
This time round, the venue is different, the partner is different, but the results appear to be equally good for the young Indian who has, in the interim, moved up to number nine in the world rankings. Partnering Caroline Vis of the Netherlands, the pair (seeded number four mainly by virtue of Bhupati's own high ranking in doubles today) breezed into the mixed doubles semifinals at the Australian Open defeating the Australian combination of Kratzman-Guse 4-6, 7-6 (9-7) 6-2.
Beginning with a rather loose first set which they predictably lost, the Bhupati-Vis pairing fought back after a sluggish start in the second to force the tie-breaker. Winning it was a battle, but once over that hurdle, the pair stormed through the third set breaking the opposition twice.
Interestingly, it was the losing pair that performed better in the key areas -- 8 aces to the Aussies as compared to one for the winning team; a 74% win ratio on first serves compared to 68% for the Bhupati-Vis duo (the corresponding figures for second serves was 61% to 48%); 16 winners against just two by Bhupati-Vis and, surprisingly, 112 points one by Kratzmann-Guse against just 95 by Bhupati-Vis.
The win, thus, owed mainly to the fact that the Bhupati-Vis pair served marginally better than their opponents (69% first serves in as against 58% for the losing pair), and also converted one out of two break point chances they had (the losing team had as many as eight chances, but managed to convert just two).
However, Bhupati also found himself on the losing side when, along with friend and partner Leander Paes, he went down in an upset result in the men's doubles semifinals to the Jonas Bjorkman-Jacco Eltingh. The Bhupati-Paes pairing was seeded second for the tournament, and billed to meet the home favourites and world number one pairing of the Woodies in the final.
The Indian pair lost 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 3-6 in one minute over three hours -- and the main culprit was double faults, of which the Indians had eight, mostly at key points in the game, and unforced errors (a rather uncharacteristic display of nerves by the Indians saw them notch up 14 errors as against just 5 by the opposition). Thanks to their up-one-minute-down-the-next style of play on the day, thus, the Indian pair wasted key break opportunities (10 chances to break, only three converted).
Essentially, the difference was that the Swedes played a very steady game throughout, not hitting fantastic highs but never dropping below a good, steady standard -- the Indians, however, oscillated wildly between the brilliant and the wayward. Starting off well in the first set, they then squandered chances in the second and third to go 1-2 down before pulling out all the stops to take the fourth. That effort however appeared to have left the Indians drained, and they surrendered the fifth set rather tamely just when the crowd, which was right behind the highly-ranked Indians, expected them to pull off another of their trademark back-from-behind wins.
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