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Good Friday for Paes

Shailesh Soni

Friday was a good day for Leander Paes at Wimbledon, as the Indian ace finished on the winning side in the men's doubles and mixed doubles events.

Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, the world No.1 doubles pair, stromed into the third round of the men's doubles with a 7-5, 7-6(7-3), 6-3 victory over Bobby Kokavec of Canada and Gabriel Trifu of Romania in a second round match.

Later in the day, Paes was on court again, this time teaming up with Lisa Raymond in a first round mixed doubles match. The pair scored a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 victory over D.Roditi and S.Jeyaseelen.

In the men's doubles match, Paes and Bhupathi, the French Open champions, seeded No 1, took time to settle down and dropped serve early. But once they found their rhythm, they showed the form that took them to the No. 1 position.

The "Indian Express" were facing a couple of tall, big-serving guys, which made things tough for them. However, to their credit, they pulled it off by effecting the breaks at the right time.

Kokavec, 23, stands at 6' 3'', while Trifu, 24, is 6' 4". They started well, holding their serve. Paes and Bhupathi had a break chance in the fifth game, but were ubale to capitalise on it. In the sixth game, the Indians were down 15-40, but fought back two break attempts before dropping serve on the third one at advantage to fall behind 2-4 in the first set.

Thereafter, the Indians suddenly struck form and won five of the next six games, with breaks in the 7th and 11th games, to close out the set at 7-5.

In the second set, neither team faced any break points and both seemed to be well in the match. The 11th and 12th games went to several deuces, but none were able to convert as the set went into the tie-breaker.

The Indians, all fired up, earned three mini breaks, and were up 6-0, before their opponents could get a point off Paes's serve. Kokavec/Trifu then held serve twice to stay in the match through three set points, before Bhupathi could finish off the tie-breaker at 7-3.

In the third set, once again it seemed like a rather even match till the fifth game, when the Indians got the vital service break and quickly finished the match.

The match took an hour and 45 minutes.

Paes and Bhupathi thus entered the last 16 at Wimbledon for the first time. For them, the real test starts now. Their next round opponents will be 16th seeds Galbraith/Gimelstob, who defeated Grabb/Johnson.

In other matches yesterday, the fourth seeds Black/Stolle and fifth seeds Delaitre/Santoro, from the upper half, advanced into the next round.

The doubles match of the day yesterday was the one between Kafelnikov/Mirnyi and Kuerten/Oncins, which the former won 14-12 in the fifth set!

Reneberg/Stark, the perennial trouble makers, upset the 12th seeds Arthurs/Kratzmann, while the other dark-horse picks, the Bryan twins, also caused an upset, defeating the seventh seeds Ferreira/Leach.

Paes and Raymond's mixed doubles match was like a practice session. They wrapped it up in just 41 minutes.

In the first set, Roditi/Jeyaseelen were broken twice, in the fourth and the eighth games, while in the second set, thrice, in the second, fourth and sixth games. Paes and Raymond were broken in third game.

In the second round, Paes and Raymond face the winner of the match between Haggard/Callens and Vizner/Testud.

Bhupathi and Ellwood face the fourth seeds Knowles/Likhovtseva.

EARLIER REPORTS:
Bhupathi/Ellwood win a thriller
Paes pairs with Raymond; Bhupathi with Ellwood
Indian pair looked relaxed in first round win
Paes-Bhupathi ready to roll on grass