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Paes at home on Dutch grass

Shailesh Soni

Leander Paes seems to be enjoying the grass in The Netherlands. At least in the company of Jan Siemerink.

The unseeded pair created a major upset in the Heineken trophy, at sHertogenbosch, when they defeated the fourth seeds, the Czechoslovakian pair of Martin Damm and Cyril Suk, 6-4, 7-5, to reach the semi-finals.

They next face the top seeds Paul Haarhuis and Daniel Nestor.

The quarter-final win gives Paes and Siemerink 105 points (including 12 and 18 bonus points for the two wins thus far in the tournament). Interestingly, one more victory will put Paes above his doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi, as the World No 1 doubles player. Paes has 3,935 points right now, while Mahesh has 3,948 points.

Bhupathi, teaming with Yvegeny Kafelnikov, reached the semi-final at the Stuttgart Outdoors last year, and earned 133 points, which is the reason why he has been ranked above Paes.

It is only the second time since winning the Reunion Challenger title, with David Johnson, in November 1996, that Paes has reached a doubles semi-final in the company of a player other than Bhupathi. Paes was in the Newport semi-finals, with Peter Tramacchi last July, while Bhupathi played in the Los Angeles Infiniti Open a final in '97, partnering Rick Leach. He also made the Stuttgart Outdoors semi-final, with Kafelnikov; won a Challenger title with Peter Tramacchi at Vietnam last year, and entered a Challenger final with Gaurav Natekar at Mumbai this year.

The Heineken semi-final will be a tough match-up against two veterans (Haarhuis/Nestor), who are both good on grass. Victory will give Paes/Siemerink 36 more bonus points, for a total of 189 points. However, more important than getting the points, is the fact that Paes is getting good practise on grass in his build-up for Wimbledon, which starts next week.

Meanwhile, the singles draw pits Paes against Brazillian qualifier Andre Sa, who is ranked 171 on the ATP listing, in the first round. His potential second round opponent, 13th seed Karol Kucera, faces Alejandro Hernandez of Mexico in the first round.

If Paes can recapture his Davis Cup or Olympics bronz medal-winning form, he has a good chance of making it to the quarter-finals. If he keeps winning, his likely opponents would be Andre Sa, an off-form Karol Kucera, Daniel Vacek, Kafelnikov or someone equally weak and beatable in that order.

In the Wimbledon doubles competition, Paes and Bhupathi are the top seeds, and play Tom Kempers and Michael Kohlmann in the first round.