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Paes-Bhupathi advance in Australian Open

The ace Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhuapthi won their first round match at the Australian Open, defeating the unseeded pair of Edwin Kempes and Peter Wessels 6-4, 6-2 in just 53 minutes.

They will face now Doug Flach and Mark Merklein in the second round.

This was their first win after four straight losses, beginning with the Stockholm Open semifinal, followed by two defeats at the Hartford World Doubles Championships, and then a round one loss in Doha recently.

The match started with both the teams holding up easily in their first 4 service games. In the 10th game, Paes/Bhupathi ambushed their opponents to jump into the lead, and go up jumped upon Kempes/Wessels to break them and took the set at 6-4.

In the second set, Mahesh started his serve a bit shakily, and was taken to deuce once, but he held serve. That was the last bit of resistence the Indians faced. From 2-2, the Indians won four games in a row to take the set and match with ease.

Paes and Bhupathi are now ranked 34th in the world, with a clutch of other pairs. Which seems a comedown for the team that ended the last year at number two. But it needs remembering that the team rankings are reset on January 1 each year -- and thus far, in 1999, the Indians have only one point, from Doha, to their name.

At the Australian Open, Paes and Bhupathi are seeded number one, and are unofficially the number one team in the world, now that last year's rankings toppers, Paul Haarhuis and Jacco Eltingh, have broken up with the latter's retirement. Haarhuis, this year, is partnering Galbraith.

The Indians are in the upper half of the draw. Other seeds in their half are 4th seeds Ferreira/Leach, 14th seeds Florent/MacPherson, 11th seeds Eagle/Grabb, and 6th seeds Galbraith/Haarhuis.

This year, the Australian Open already seems to deserve the billing of the Year of the Floaters, with emerging teams causing a lot of upsets.

Among those going out were 13th seed Norval/Ullyett and 8th seeds Lareau/O'Brien.

In mixed doubles Leander is partnering Katrina Adams of USA and are seeded 6th. They play Haggard/Callens in Round 1.