'Hesh and I are special doubles players'

Faisal Shariff

"Hesh and I are special doubles players." With that ended the post-match conference of the awesome twosome who clinically saw their second match of the WDC2000 through.

A straight sets 6-4, 6-4 win over Don Johnson (USA) and Piet Norval (RSA) makes them the only team to have won both their games in straight sets. This win assures them of a place in the semi-finals but that's not what we want to know. Our anxieties are far beyond the gamut of these matches. Will this duo recreate the magic that they have been doing ever since they came together?

They didn't promise a cemented association saying that they were approaching the whole relationship on a day-to-day basis, nurturing it.

"We're keeping things as simple as we can. Not complicating it like we used to earlier. We have verbally and honestly looked at our relationship. Playing together after a long time is not so difficult because we're a team and that's what we're supposed to be," said Paes as he played footsie with Mahesh when the latter faced queries from the media.

"We support each other irrespective of whether we're losing or winning. That helps," remarked Paes.

Their opponents today weren't the toughest but given the form that the two were in it was a commendable performance. But then that is what is so special about these two. They don't play by form or by rules. They play to the galleries, literally.

It took them all of 73 minutes to dispense their opponents and fears that they were finished as a team. The magic is still alive and no one is complaining.

There play on court was awe-inspiring. If Bhupathi took care of the backcourt, Paes was moving in with the grace of a ballet dancer with his cross-court volleys. The crowd was sparse, the stadium empty, till Bhupathi/Paes walked into it. Then there was a buzz of a million fans.

Cheers filled the stands as the fluffy greens flew from the rackets of the duo, kissing the chalk on its way. So, much so that the opponents were spending more time complaining about the problems posed by the crowds. About their opponents they knew they had no solutions.

One look at the statistics and it shows how close the match really was. Both the teams had sixty percent of their first serves in; both the teams had a lone ace in their kitty. In fact Paes/Bhupathi had more unforced errors (24) compared to their opponents (18). Yet they won. That is the magic this genius team possess.

After an emotionally tough separation for the duo, there seems to be some sanity of thought. Of the thought that they could, if they stayed together, go down as the greatest doubles players of he open-era. The Woodies are on their way out and the stage seems set for a long and lonely time at the top for the two of them.

"We're professional enough to know that we should not let our personal differences come in between us. Now even if we don't meet for 2-3 weeks it's okay. Earlier it wasn't. What we do on court is important and that's what we've decided to concentrate on," said Hesh (Mahesh Bhupathi) as he is affectionately called.

"We don't promise anything at this point of time. So we still make you sweat," said Bhupathi with a rare smile.

Losers make promises; winners make commitments. Paes and Bhupathi are winners, so we would like to believe.