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Indians lose in French Open mixed doubles

The Indian challenge in the mixed doubles at the French Open ended in the quarter-finals yesterday, with the exit of the top seeded pair of Leander Paes/Lisa Raymond, and the third seeds Mahesh Bhupathi/Ai Sugiyama.

Leander Paes/Lisa Raymond lost to the sixth seeds, Larisa Neiland/Rick Leach 6-8(8-10), 3-6 in a hard-fought match, while Bhupathi/Sugiyama lost to the unseeded pair of Katarina Srebotnik/Piet Norval 6-2, 3-6, 5-7. The match seemed well in their hands at 5-2 in the third set, but Bhupathi and Sugiyama let slip the advantage. In the 12th game, they made Srebotnik/Norval serve five match-points before caving in.

Larisa Neiland had partnered Leander Paes in the French Open mixed doubles last year, when they were top seeded, but lost in the second round.

In the doubles, the top seed Indian pair of Leander Paes/Mahesh Bhupathi will face the unseeded sweedish pair of Nicklas Kulti/Mikael Tillstrom in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Bhupathi and Paes regained the No 1 and 2 spots respectively in the individual doubles rankings, with yesterday's quarter-final victory over Ellis Ferreira/Rick Leach. Victory in the semi-finals at the French Open will give them the No.1 spot. They climbed back to the No 2 spot, with 1504 points, and are just behind Stolle-Suk.

The new individual points as of now are: 3528 for Bhupathi, and 3457 for Paes. Regardless of what happens from now on, the No 3 and 4 ranked players after the French Open will be Sandon Stolle, with 3254 points, and Paul Haarhuis, with 3144 points.

Paes and Bhupathi can pick about 450 more points if they win the French Open, and that would make it almost impossible for any other team (except perhaps Stolle, considering a Wimbledon final) to threaten them for the next few months.

Besides, Paes and Bhupathi hardly have any points to defend at Wimbledon and in the forthcoming grass season. They also don't have many points at the Cincinnati and Montreal Super 9s either.

It took five years for any other player to displace one of the Dutchmen or the Woodies from the top spot, Bhupathi did it last month.