Cup turns half empty for Paes-Bhupathi

NEW YORK, SEPT 11: The 17-match winning streak in Grand Slams finally ended as the top seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi went down 6...

NEW YORK, SEPT 11: The 17-match winning streak in Grand Slams finally ended as the top seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi went down 6-7 7, 4-6 to 11th seeds Alex O8217;Brien US and Sebastien Lareau Canada in the men8217;s doubles final on Friday.

The World No 1 doubles pair thus finished with a two titles-two finals record in Grand Slams, unparalleled in the history of Open era. Their Grand Slam win-loss record this year stands at 22-2 with both the losses coming in the finals at Australian Open and here.

8220;I guess there are two ways to look at it: Two out of four isn8217;t bad,8221; Paes said. 8220;But then again, we were very close in Australia. Today, we had our chances as well. I guess we always look at the bright side of things. We always look at our cup half full versus half empty. It8217;s been a fun year.

We8217;ve had a fantastic year with the Grand Slams and stuff. Now we are looking forward to doing well this Hartford and the full season ahead of us.8221;

8220;We obviously are a little disappointed,8221; Bhupathisaid. 8220;But as Leander said, we had a great year. I don8217;t think we can complain too much. Those guys played a great match. We did a good job of coming back when we were down in the second set. But I think Sebastien and Alex, they really came out with their homework done today. They served really well, didn8217;t give us too much to work with.8221;

Going into the final, the Indians were 5-2 against the 11th-seeded pair, which included a five-set win at Wimbledon quarter-finals this year after being two sets to love down. But today, both O8217;Brien and Lareau, who had a semi-final showing at the US Open with Paes in 1993, served well and did not give many chances to the Indians.

With O8217;Brien8217;s terrific returns and Lareau8217;s work at the net, Bhupathi dropped serve in the sixth game of the first set, the first sign that the Indians were in for a tough time. In the marathon ninth game, both Paes and Bhupathi attacked Lareau8217;s serve and finally managed to break him after nine break points.

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The tie-breaker, perhaps, setthe tone for the match as Indian muffed two set points at 6-4 and went on to lose the tie-breaker at 7-9.

In the second set, Paes dropped his serve in the third but was quick to break back in the next game off Lareau8217;s serve. The final turned the 11th seeds way in the ninth when they broke Bhupathi and O8217;Brien served out the match in style.

Paes, meanwhile, felt that they were a much better team than what they were in January. 8220;Definitely. We8217;re a more sound team. We are winning a lot of close matches. When the chips are down, we really are kind of fighting through it. We8217;ve matured a lot as individual players.8221;

8220;This week was one of the best doubles that I8217;ve seen Mahesh play ever. It8217;s been fun to see him progress over the last couple years, especially the way he played this week in that quarter-final 8212; semi-final match. He just played fantastic. It8217;s been a fun year. We both have enjoyed the time on the tennis court. We8217;ll be looking forward to next year, as well.8221;