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Inconsistent Paes falls at first hurdle

Shailesh Soni

The Indian singles challenge at Wimbledon ended on day one itself, with Leander Paes bowing out in the first round after losing to Brazilian qualifier Andre Sa.

Paes, who lost 4-6, 4-6, 6-7(4-7), seemed always under pressure, and though he scored comfortably, he was inconsistent and failed to capitalise on crucial chances, which ultimately cost him the match.

The points won in the match were rather even, but it was just that Paes seemed to often win points after falling behind on his serve, or after Sa went up on his own serve. The difference was that Paes though did break Sa four times, in reply was broken six times. The games where Paes was broken were largely of the quick 0-40-and-out variety, showing the inconsistency in his game.

In the first set, Paes was broken in only his second service game. He did manage to break Sa in the eighth, but went down in the ninth as Sa took the set 6-4.

In the second set, Paes's third service game was broken, but he did come back to win the sixth game to even the scores. Again, the inconsistency showed as he was unable to hold on and went down in the ninth game to give Sa, who seemed to get the breaks just when Paes tightened up his play, the set at 6-4.

Paes began the third set disastrously, losing the first service game and was again broken by Sa in the seventh. However, he did break Sa twice in the fourth and tenth games. He then evened up things by jumping on Sa 40-0 when he was serving for the match and managed to take it to the tie-breaker, only to find himself falling by two minibreaks at 2-5, and then breaking back to go 4-5 before dropping serve again for a 4-7 loss of set and match.

Sa played very well, had good serves and an aggressive all-court game. Paes had chances in all three sets, but that one shot at the right time was not there.