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Paes, Bhupati book world doubles berth

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati will form one of the eight leading teams in the world to take part in the World Doubles championships at Hartford, the Association of Tennis Players announced on Monday.

Paes and Bhupati, ranked number four in the world midway through October, have however slipped to number six thanks mainly to the fact that they lost a recent tournament, at Stuttgart, to the Sebastien Lareau-Alex O'Brien combine, and also to the fact that they have pulled out of a couple of ATP tournaments, preferring to rest a bit before the big one.

The same reasons have also seen Bhupati and Paes, who last month were ranked numbers nine and ten in the world in individual doubles standings, slip to number 11 and 14 respectively.

There are still three Opens -- at Moscow, Stockholm and Santiago -- to go before the year-ending Hartford event. However, irrespective of results in those three tournaments, Paes and Bhupati will be part of the Hartford field, the ATP announced. This, incidentally, makes them the first ever Indian combination to take part in that prestigious competition and, in fact, the first Indian team to rank in the world top ten at year-end.

Summing up, the ATP in its bulletin said that "the Indian team's season can be summed up in two different streaks. From April to May, they were 15-0 in all doubles matches, winning Challenger titles in Prage and Jerusalem and also winning their first Tour titles in Madras and Prague. Then, after a 4-4 slump, they got hot again, winning four Tour titles (Montreal, New Haven, Beijing and Singapore) in August-October. In the process, they jumped from 24 to 4 in team rankings and, given their present rate of progress, have the capability of winning the Hartford event."

The top ten doubles teams, as per the latest rankings, are as follows (Points in brackets): Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde (4624); Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis (3589); Rich Lean and Jonathan Stark (2487); Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Daniel Vacek (2465); Ellis Ferreira and Patrick Galbraith (2408); Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes (2402); Sebastien Lareau and Alex O'Brien (2386); Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor (2017); Luis Lobo and Javier Sanchez (1919) and Jonas Bjorkman and Nicklaus Kulti (1834).

Of these, the first seven pairings will take part in the Hartford event. The eighth place, meanwhile, is up for grabs and will be determined at the end of the three upcoming tour events.

UNI