Doubles won, India go up 2-1

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi defeated Thomas Shimada and Takahiro Terachi in the doubles rubber today as India took a 2-1 lead over Japa...

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi defeated Thomas Shimada and Takahiro Terachi in the doubles rubber today as India took a 2-1 lead over Japan in their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I clash. Paes and Bhupathi outplayed the Japanese pair on their way to a 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 victory at Utsubo Tennis Centre to go ahead of Japan in the second round tie.

‘‘It was important for us to win the doubles,’’ said Paes, who defeated Takao Suzuki in yesterday’s singles. ‘‘This is one of the rubbers we count on. I have to play all three days so we didn’t want this to go to a fifth set today.’’

The two nations split the singles matches yesterday and will play reverse singles matches tomorrow. The winner will advance to September’s playoff ties for the World Group.

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In today’s doubles, Paes and Bhupathi took control early. India broke serve in the first set to go up 3-1 before winning the next three games.

Japan desperately tried to get back in the match. India took a 4-1 lead in the third set but Shimada and Terachi battled back to win the next five games. ‘‘We lost our concentration there after being up 4-1 in the third,’’ said Bhupathi. ‘‘We were winning so easily that maybe we let up a bit and allowed them to get back in the game. But at the end of the day we got the win and that’s what counts.’’

India also took a commanding 3-0 lead in the final set, but Japan fought back to make it 5-5. Paes and Bhupathi held serve to go up 6-5 and then broke serve to close out the victory in 2 hours and 9 minutes.

Paes said the pressure is now clearly on the hosts. ‘‘Japan has to win both matches tomorrow and that’s never easy to do,’’ added Paes. ‘‘There is a lot of pressure on them now.’’