Bhupati, Leach in doubles final

Indian Davis Cup team member Mahesh Bhupathi, partnering Rick Leach of the United States, entered the doubles final of the US $303,000 Infiniti Open in Los Angeles, defeating the second seeded Australians Mark Philoppoussis and Patrick Rafter.

Seeded fourth, the Leach-Bhupathi pair held their own against the big serving Aussies to win 7-6 (5-7), 7-5 and now take on top seeded Sebastian Lauruea of Canada and Alex O'Brien of the United States for the title.

Bhupathi has been having a dream run in doubles, this year, having entered the final of an international tournament for the third time now. First up, Bhupati and fellow Davis Cupper Leander Paes won the Golf Flake Open title in Chennai in April, then went on to win the Prague Open. The pair also won Challenger titles in Prague and Jerusalem. Bhupati also became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam mixed doubles title when he took the French Open title earlier this year.

Bhupati paired with Leach - who had earlier partnered Robert Seguso to form the world number one doubles team of the time - after his regular partner, Paes, dropped out and expressed a preference to concentrate on singles.

Interestingly, in this tournament Bhupathi also had a good run in the singles, defeating Daniel Nestor before falling in straight sets to former world number one Jim Courier.