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January 30, 1998
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Bhupati-Vis out of Australian Open semis
The mixed doubles pairing of Mahesh Bhupati (India) and Caroline Vis (Netherlands) crashed out of the Australian Open on Thursday.
In keeping with the trend at this year's Australian Open, in which, going into the final rounds, just two top seeds (Martina Hingis in women's singles and the Woodforde-Woodbridge combination in men's doubles) have lived up to their billing, the fourth-ranked pair was upset by the fifth seeded brother-sister pairing of Cyril Suk and Helena Sukova of the Czech Republic.
In a tense match lasting an hour and 42 minutes, the Bhupati-Vis combine started badly, getting broken regularly to go down 2-6 in just 21 minutes. However, the duo came back fighting in the second set, to take it in 32 minutes with a 6-3 scoreline.
The third set, which lasted all of 49 minutes, was a tense affair, with both pairs pulling out all stops and going on level terms right through. The 6-6 scoreline forced the game into the tie-breaker but here, the weak serve of Caroline Vis came under intense pressure, and a couple of unforced errors added to the misery for the fourth seeded pair, which lost the tie-breaker 3-7.
With this, Bhupati has the dubious distinction of having lost at the last four stage in both the men's and mixed doubles events -- ironically, for the Bhupati-Paes pairing, this was the second successive loss in a Grand Slam semis, having bowed out at an identical stage in the U S Open in late 1997 as well.
Interestingly, this is the first time Bhupati is partnering Vis, ranked much lower than him in individual rankings in doubles. At the French Open last year, he had similarly paired, for the first time, with Rika Hiraki of Japan and gone on to record an upset title triumph.
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