The Indian Express were making only their second ATP main draw appearance together since 2004, trying to get some match practice ahead of their quest for Olympic gold at Beijing next month. The duo had reached the Ordina Open final in the Netherlands in June.
Bhupathi and Paes could again face ATP Doubles ranking leader Nestor and Niemeyer at the Olympics as the duo will be representing Canada in Beijing.On Wednesday, Nestor and Niemeyer held triple match point at 9-6 in the match tie-break but Bhupathi and Paes leveled the score at 9-all and then took the 10-9 lead. The Canadians responded by winning the next three points to prevail against the No. 1 seeds in one hour and 25 minutes.
Bhupathi and Paes have a 217-79 career record as a pair. They have won 23 titles together but now play with separate partners on the ATP Tour.
Earlier, Rohan Bopanna teamed up with Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi to defeat No. 4 seeds Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov 2-6, 7-5, 10-6.
Bopanna was ranked a career-high 43 in the ATP doubles list on Monday thanks to an appearance in the final at Newport last week.
(Watch Bhupathi and Paes speak of their chances at the Beijing Olympics in this interview to ATP)
Hey Toeknee. I was surprised to see that they're not going for it in Canada, but I guess they want to stick with their regular partners for the Masters series until the Olympics. It seems like they could use a little more sharpening because Niemeyer isn't exactly a world beater.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I don't really expect a medal for India.
ReplyDeleteI saw those two play at the first U.S. Open I went to back in '98 and they lost to Knowles and Nestor. I was a fan of theirs going into that match and liked them afterward, too. I wish they would've stuck together: They probably would've had numbers like the Woodies and have won a couple of medals by now.
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