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Paes, Vaidyanathan score

Shailesh Soni

Leander Paes and Nirupama Vaidyanathan won their second round matches at the Australian Open qualifier today in contrasting styles.

Paes reached the final round of qualifiers with a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory over Franticek Cermak of the Czech Republic, while Nirupama, whose match started half hour earlier than the Paes's, had to fight a long battle to down 10th seed Kimberly Po of the United States 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3.

Paes started off well, going up 30-40 and breaking Cermak on the first chance. He kept cruising, and broke Cermak again in the fifth game to go up 4-1. He wrapped up the set at 6-2 with no trouble.

Paes maintained the pressure, converting the second break chance in game 1 of the second set to go up again. He did face a break attempt in the next game, but held it to go 2-0 up. Paes broke Cermak again in game 5 for a 4-1 lead, like in the first set. He then had a match point in game 7 at 30-40, and then at advantage out, but Cermak saved it. Paes served it off in the next game.

Paes will face 23rd seed Marcos Ondruska of South Africa in the final round of the qualifier. Ondruska defeated Sebastien De Chaunac of France 7-6(9-7), 6-7(5-7), 6-0.

Paes and Ondruska are very familiar with each other's play, having played in the Wimbledon juniors' final, with Paes winning it on that occasion. They have met once after that, at the 1996 US Open first round, when Paes again won, 7-6, 6-2, 7-5 in straight sets. Ondruska won't be easy, but Paes may have a psychological edge in this match.

In a match which went up to two hours and five minutes, Nirupama did not have a hot start, as she faced a break point in the first game service game of the first set at 30-40, and was broken after two deuces to fall behind 0-2. At 0-3, Nirupama was again in trouble, but she held her serve after three deuces. She did take off a few points off Po's serve and took her to two deuces in game 5, but could not force any breaks. Nirupama again faced two break points in game 6 at 15-40, but held on with four straight points winners. She then took Po to two deuces in the next game and finally broke back to be on serve at 3-4. Po wasn't ready to let go, as she went up 0-40 and broke Nirupama again to serve for the set at 5-3.

But the Indian broke right back in the next game to make it 4-5. She held the serve and continued to go after Po's serve, breaking her at 15-40 to go 6-5 up. It was now Po's turn to break back in the next game and the set went into tiebreaker.

Nirupama was up a minibreak early on in the tiebreaker but was soon down by two. She faced a triple set points at 3-6, fought off two but fell at 5-7.

In second set also the Indian started badly and was broken in game 1 to fall behind 0-2. Po seemed to be cruising, holding her serve at love when Nirupama steadied herself, held serve and took Po to two break points in the next game, tying it up at 2-2. She was soon serving deuce again, but made it 3-2. At this point the Indian stepped up her game and took four straight points off Po's serve to go up 4-2. It was once again deuces off Nirupama's serve, but she came through for a 5-2 lead, and soon it was a set all.

In the third set again the Indian allowed Po to get an early break, dropping serve in game 2 to fall behind 0-2. Nirupama quickly came back breaking Po in the very next game. After a couple of relatively uneventful games, Nirupama was in trouble serving at 2-3. She fought off four break attempts, and finally held it for 3-3. Then she had Po on the ropes in the next game at deuces, but she pulled off the break to go up 4-3. She then held serve at 40-15 in the next game. Suddenly Po lost everything and the Indian went for the final kill to choke her opponent who couldn't get a point in the next game on her own serve. She then forced the final break for the win against the highly ranked player.

Nirupama will face the 16th seed Kerry-Anne Guse of Australia in the final round of the qualifier. The Australian defeated Stephanie Foretz of France 6-1, 6-3.

In the men's section the 1, 6, 7 and 8 seeds have lost in the second round, and so there are four players ahead of Paes in case he has to rely on a lucky loser spot to get into the main draw. As such, Paes has never qualified into a Grand Slam, though he has been a lucky loser entry two or three times. A similar scene awaits Nirupama, who has also lost in the final round of the qualifier thrice, though her ranks weren't high enough for lucky loser spots.

Paes can certainly win tomorrow's match, and he seems to be getting into at least reasonable form in singles. It's really very funny that just about six weeks back, with an eight-match losing streak, one couldn't expect him to beat even players outside the top 300, and now he has gone 13-1 in singles matches with a win over a top 100 player and many wins over top 300 players, with the only loss being to 14th ranked Cedric Pioline at the Gold Flake Open.

If he qualifies, it will be for the first time in a year-and-a-half. The last time that happened was at New Haven in 1998, when he went on to win three rounds in the main draw as well, including the upset of Pete Sampras. Paes will also get 15 entry rank points for qualifying into the main draw (with 3 race points).

For Nirupama, the win today gives her 16 WTA points, including four bonus (no bonus for the first round win, as Jaslyn was ranked below 500). She had 20 points to defend from last year. A win tomorrow will give her 24.5 points (including 8 bonus).

First round report