| |
Grand Slam time for India Bhupathi, Paes win country's first title in men's doubles
Posted: Saturday June 12, 1999 10:43 AM
PARIS (CNN/SI) -- Mahes Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India captured the French Open men's doubles title on Sunday, for their first Grand Slam crown. The duo downed Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia and Jeff Tarango of the United States 6-2, 7-5. Bhupathi and Paes are the first team from India to win a Grand Slam title. The pair has a huge following in their homeland where their matches are shown live. "Tennis in the number two sport after cricket in India," said Paes. "It gives us great pride, giving the rest of our country something to be happy about." Bhupathi wasn't sure their win would wipe the cricket World Cup off the front pages in India. "I'm sure we'll get a small headline down at the bottom," he said. "It's tough to wipe out the cricket in India." The match started Saturday but was suspended because of rain and resumed at noon Sunday. Bhupathi and Paes easily won the first set where they broke Tarango's serve twice to win 6-2. Tarango said he had difficulty serving due to the wet weather conditions. "The ball just seemed a little bit heavier out there on the center court in the finals," he said. In the second set he held serve the first game but play was interrupted by rain. After 45 minutes play resumed and Ivanisevic and Tarango broke Bhupathi's serve and Tarango held serve to give the team a 3-0 lead. Bhupathi and Paes fought back to 5-5 when play was suspended again for rain. Play resumed Sunday and the Indian team broke Tarango's serve again to lead 6-5. The final game came to deuce but Paes held serve to win the match. Tarango took the blame for the loss saying that Ivanisevic would have won with another partner. Ivanisevic is one of the few seeded players to play doubles at all. "I always like to play doubles but this is good for my confidence I think," Ivanisevic said. "Lately I was not playing so well, so I think this final is going to do me well for the upcoming grass season." Tarango said the two would certainly play more doubles together but not at this year's Wimbledon. Ivanisevic has got some "bigger things to concentrate on at Wimbledon" he said. Ivanisevic was a semifinalist at last year's Wimbledon and will concentrate on playing singles. Bhupathi and Paes have been working on being the top-seeded doubles team for the last four years and will continue to do so. "Our main thing is to dominate the doubles circuit," said Bhupathi. "We're looking basically to win as many tournaments and Grand Slams as we can."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
