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Paes/Bjorkman in last eight

Shailesh Soni

The Indo-Swedish pair of Leander Paes and Jonas Bjorkman entered the quarter-finals of the Mercedes-Benz Cup at Los Angeles yesterday.

In their first round match, they defeated the unseeded pair of A Florent/P Kilderry, 6-2, 6-3.

The top seed pair started with a bang and broke their opponents twice to take the first set in just 25 minutes. Florent and Kilderry dropped one service game each in the first set.

In the second set, Paes/Bjorkman went up 2-1 with a service break off Kilderry in the third game. The game went into deuce thrice before Bjorkman finished it with a nice placement in no-man's land. The next game was won by Paes at love with an ace.

Paes/Bjorkman then went up by two breaks, to 4-1, following a double fault by Andrew Florent in the fifth game. However, in the next game, Bjorkman dropped serve unexpectedly, as both Kilderry and Florent came up with some scorching returns, and then double faulted as it looked like the sun was right in his eye on high tosses.

Kilderry was taken to deuce in the next game after a beautiful crosscourt flip following a reflex lunge by Paes backwards, but Kilderry held the game to go 3-4 after Paes netted an easy volley.

Paes served an easy eighth game to go up 5-3 and then came the time for the final nail. A timely lob from Paes was returned long by Florent. Some adept volleying by Bjorkman and Paes made it double match points. Then Florent double faulted and the match was over.

It took the top seed pair about 55 minutes to finish off the match, which allowed Paes the time for some golf in the afternoon.

As for Bjorkman, he had a nice solid game. Nothing too flashy, but one could see why he is one of the very best doubles players out there. Sure, he clearly knows what to do at all times. It's nice to have somebody like that alongside Paes when his best partner, Mahesh Bhupathi, is not available.

Paes always had that comfortable look on his face despite playing with a new partner.

They play the quarter-final against Martin Damm and Adam Peterson on Friday.

In the other doubles match, the darkhorse team of Mark Woodforde and Lleyton Hewitt won their first round match against Brandon Coupe and Eric Taino, 6-2, 6-4. The pair is looking really good, with Hewitt showing excellent doubles instincts, unusual for an 18-year-old. He has great touch at the net and quicksilver reflexes.

One remembers Hewitt, who travelled with Leander Paes, when he was being coached by the Bob"Nails" Carmichael last year. Woodforde/Hewitt play second seeds Black/Stolle today in a featured night match.