Hantuchova all praise for Bhupathi

Flattered with all the attention from the lovely lady, Bhupathi said: “Since she won Wimbledon with Leos Friedl in 2002, all the guys wanted to play with her. I had to wait for a long time and eventually we ended up playing together.”

Speaking about his experience playing mixed doubles, Bhupathi said: “You go with a gameplan to attack the girl on the opposite side of the court because she is not used to the pace but sometimes things take a complete different turn. In mixed doubles, it takes you a while to adjust to the lack of pace and game is much slower.”

Spilling out the secrets from the closet, Hantuchova said with an air of mischief: “None of the guys take it easy and they don’t hold anything back and come at you full throttle during the mixed doubles matches. But I thoroughly enjoy it and you always have the added benefit of sharing the court with a male counterpart.”

Bhupathi’s better half, Shweta who played the role of the jealous wife to the hilt in the media-orchestrated event said: “Mahesh has won six mixed doubles event with six different partners. But that’s all he can get and I hope off court he is happy with only one.”

At the end of the day all was said in good spirit and only Bhupathi walked away the winner, clearly basking in the glory of all the attention that was showered on him by the two damsels.