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Paes in Hall of Fame quarters

India’s Leander Paes displayed grit and skill to overcome sixth-seed Scot Draper in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, in the second round of the Hall of Fame tennis championships.

Other seeds to tumble in the second round were number two Mark Woodforde, who dropped a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 match to Belgium’s Laurence Tieleman; number three Jeff Tarango, who lost to Justin Gimbelstob 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) and number eight Grant Stafford, who fell to Mark Knowles 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

The biggest name in the tournament was Woodforde, more thanks to his doubles prowess. Paes, not as highly ranked, has however figured in the semifinals the last two years.

Defending champion Sargis Sargsian, seeded fourth, tumbled out of the tournament in a rain-interrupted game, losing to Rainier Schuttler.

Schuttler will now take on Leander Paes, who has made the semifinal of the presitigious event at Newport for the last two years. In other quarterfinal action, Jason Stoltenberg, seeded one, will play seventh seed John van Lottum, while Justin Gimelstob plays Neville Godwin and Mark Knowles takes on Laurence Tieleman.

The grasscourt tournament, with a first prize of $39,000, is being held just one month after a fire damaged the north wing of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. On Saturday, legendary player Jimmy Connors and the late Herman David, the former All-England Club chairman, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Looking to do a repeat, Paes also partnered Peter Tramacchi to a win in the doubles competition, to enter the semifinals. The scratch pair, seeded third, defeated David Dilucia and Michael Sell 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the quarters and will now face D Flach (not to be confused with Ken Flach, of the famous partnership with Robert Seguso) and S Stolle.

Interestingly, Paes and Tramacchi are the only seeds left in the tournament, with upsets being the feature of the doubles event as well.

The other two seeded teams in the quarterfinals both lost - top seeds Sebastien Lareau and Alex O'Brien (playing together after eight months) to Kent Kinnear and Paul Kilderry, while fouth seeds Neville Godwin and Kevin Ullyett lost to Scott Draper and Jason Stoltenberg.

The Semifinal line-up for the doubles is:
S.Draper(AUS)/J.Stoltenberg(AUS) vs P.Kilderry(AUS)/ K.Kinnear(USA) and L.Paes(IND)/P.Tramacchi(AUS) vs D.Flach(USA)/S.Stolle(AUS)

For trivia buffs, Leander Paes is now ranked 120 in men's individual singles rankings, having moved up two steps. Just one step ahead of him is a certain Boris Becker of Germany -- one time an idol of Paes, now one of his pet peeves (read a transcript of Leander's chat on Rediff to find out why).

Mahesh Bhupati, meanwhile, is ranked 309 in individual singles, and number three, individually, in doubles -- which is his highest ranking in an event in which he has been performing very well these last two years. Paes, meanwhile, has an individual ranking of seven in doubles, while his pairing with Mahesh Bhupati is ranked third in the world, as of July 6, 1998.

Mahesh Bhupathi is back in India for a two week holiday, nursing a leg injury which prevented him from accepting a wild card for the Newport event.

He is next slated to play at the Tampere (Finland) Challenger and the Istanbul (Turkey) Challenger, before going to Toronto for the DuMaurier Super 9 tournament where he partners Paes in the doubles.