Shanghai beckons but no luck for Paes at Paris

I had been away for two days and got to know the news late - Leander Paes and Martin Damm have secured berths in next month's Tennis Masters Cup.

But the duo, currently at number five in the ATP Doubles Race, will not be fancying their chances at Shanghai, bogged down as they are by a string of opening round defeats in recent matches.

The newly qualified Masters Cup pair bowed out of the BNP Paribas Masters in the first round on Monday.

Their conquerors Jeff Coetzee of South Africa and Dutchman Rogier Wassen prevailed 11-9 in the super-tiebreaker after the teams split the first two sets 6-3 and 6-7(3).

Paes, who won the Paris Masters in 1998 with Mahesh Bhupathi, and Damm frittered away matchpoints in the second set as well as in the super-tiebreaker.

Leander Paes makes winning return to ATP Tour

Doubles specialist Leander Paes teamed up with regular partner Martin Damm of the Czech Republic to beat Agustin Calleri of Argentina and Andreas Seppi of Italy in the first round of the BA-CA Tennis Trophy in Vienna.

Playing their first match since the defending champions were ousted in their US Open opener in August, second seeds Paes and Damm took nearly an hour-and-a-half to subdue their opponents 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.

Awaiting them in the quarterfinals is the American duo of Mardy Fish and Robby Ginepri.

Paes has been absent from the tennis scene for more than a month. He skipped the Kingfisher Airlines Open in Mumbai, ostensibly to play in Bangkok with Jamie Murray but the duo never showed up in Thailand. The two were also to play doubles as a pair in Tokyo last week but that didn't happen either.

Arguably the best Indian doubles player ever, Paes has been at loggerheads with former partner Mahesh Bhupathi (probably the real reason for bypassing ATP Mumbai - a tournament promoted by Bhupathi's company).

Paes, 34 will quit playing with Damm at the end of this season and is slated to team up with Australian Paul Hanley in 2008.

A good performance at Vienna should help Paes and Damm garner enough points to qualify for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai. The duo are currently in fourth place in the ATP Doubles Race.