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Setback to Paes's Wimbledon preparations

Shailesh Soni

Leander Paes will not have the Wimbledon preparation he had hoped for. The Indian ace will only be playing doubles this week, in the company of Jan Siemerink, at the Heineken Trophy at sHertogenbosch (formerly Rosmalen - they are twin towns with the tennis center in between) in The Netherlands, prior to the Grand Slam event, where he has a direct entry.

The ATP has a rule that explicitly prohibits those who lose or withdraw in the main draw of a tournament from playing the qualifiers of a Grand Slam in the same week. Paes thought he would have to go through the Wimbledon qualifiers, and did not enter either of the two grasscourt tournaments that will be played this week. However, as it turned out, when the draws for Wimbledon were made, taking into account the rankings of the week after May 3, Paes's ranking had moved up to 102, which earned him a direct entry.

At around that time, on Friday evening, Paes and Bhupathi were playing their doubles match at Queen's. Since the organisers now do the qualifying entry list at the same time as when one enters for the main draw, it was impossible for Paes enter any other tournament or reach The Netherlands the same evening and enter the singles competition there.

A look at how Paes ended up missing out on the sHertogenbosch singles this week, shows that he really couldn't have avoided it. The entry deadline for this tournament was some time around April 25, when Paes's ATP ranking was at 105 and he wasn't sure of a direct entry into Wimbledon. The sHertogenbosch entries are based on the April 26th rankings, and that is when Leander moved to 103 on the ATP ranking.

Thus, Paes will not get the much-needed singles practice on grass. It is crucial for him to pick up his first main draw victory at the Wimbledon to garner some points, as he has 151 points to defend the week after at the Newport Hall of Fame tournament in the US.

Paes and Siemerink are unseeded, and face Andrew Florent and David McPherson in the first round. They are in the bottom quarter of the upper half of the draw with fourth seeds Martin Damm/Cyril Suk in the vicinity. Paul Haarhuis/Daniel Nestor are the top seeds, while Ellis Ferreira/David Rikl are seeded second.

Paes's doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi however will be seen in singles action at the Wimbledon qualifier. He will be hoping to maintain his record of making it to the main draw as in the past two years.

India's top women's player Nirupama Vaidyanathan will also be at the Wimbledon qualifier. For her, grass is an uncomfortable surface, but ironically, the Wimbledon qualifier is the only grasscourt tournament she plays in during the year.

At Queen's, fifth seeds Lareau/O'Brien beat second seeds, the Woodies in straight sets to win the title. The Woodies shared the title here last year, and were defending about 150 points. Paes and Bhupathi had only 96 points from last year, which will now get replaced by around 65 points from some other tournament (they got only around 45 points for reaching the quarter-final this time at Queen's). Thus, their points will fall by about 30, but their ranking will stay as they are far ahead of the other players after the French Open triumph.