Paes, Bhupathi to team-up
next week
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will forget about their split and team up next week at the $381,000 Mallorca ATP Open in Spain.
Both had earlier decided to take the week off before the Rome Masters, which commences from May 6, but decided against their plans as they had not played much in the last three weeks, after early exits with different partners in various tournaments. With their new partners already making committments, they were left with no other option but to team-up again.
This week, Bhupathi and Todd Woodbridge went down to the singles-entry doubles team of Younes El Aynaoui and Albert Portas 3-6, 6-4 (10-3) at $955,000 Open Seat Godo ATP in Barcelona, Spain, after first round bye, while Paes, partnering John-Laffnie DeJager, went down in the first round to US wildcards Robert Kendrick and Brian Vahaly 3-6, 2-6 at the $400K US claycourts ATP at Houston.
Last week, at the $2.95 million Monte Carlo Masters, Bhupathi and Jeff Tarango, the fourth seeds, lost in the first round to Arnaud Clement and Nicolas Escude 1-6, 6-7(4) while Paes and John-Laffnie DeJager lost 0-6, 2-6 in the first round to the top seeds Don Johnson and Jared Palmer.
The idea to play together sounds good as Paes and Bhupathi could get some points and clay practice for the forthcoming French Open. The duo have 1000 points each to defend from their French Open triumph last year. Individually, both have aleady lost 575 points from Houston/Atlanta/Monte-Carlo
Paes and Bhupathi decided to part ways last month for the second time after a successful partnership that saw them win two Grand Slam titles. They took the tennis world by storm in 1997, winning their first major title together on the ATP tour at the 1997 Gold Flake Open. Thereafter, 12 titles came their way, leading up to a sensational 1999, which saw them become the first pair since 1952 to reach all four Grand Slam finals and win the Wimbledon and French Open titles. They then went through a bitter split in early 2000 that ended just before the Sydney Olympics. After an initial slump on the return trail, they claimed their second French title at Roland Garros and ended last year fourth in the Champions' Race.
