Indians finally falter Leach-Stark win in straight sets

HARTFORD, NOV 24: Veteran Rick Leach and his partner Jonathan Stark powered their way past India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes to win ...

HARTFORD, NOV 24: Veteran Rick Leach and his partner Jonathan Stark powered their way past India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes to win the ATP World Doubles Championship last night.

Americans Leach and Stark, the fourth seeds, took one hour and 58 minutes to register a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-3) win in the final of the $ 500,000 event at the Hartford Civic Center.

The victory was Leach’s second World crown. The 32-year-old won the title in 1988 with Jim Pugh and has qualified for the championship with five different partners over the last nine years.

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It also maintained Leach’s record of having won a doubles tournament every year since 1987.

World number four Indian duo, who earned a whopping 350 ATP ranking points at this season-ending championship will move up when the ATP Tour would announce year-ending rankings.

The world number three Russian-Czech pair of Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Daniel Vacek opted out of the championship as the Russian qualified for ATP World singles tournament. They were 20-odd points ahead of Paes-Bhupathi before the start of the championship.

For Americans, the victory was worth $ 115,000 in prize money while Paes and Bhupathi pocketed the runners-up cheque along with $ 55,000 earnings through their wins in preliminary and semifinal matches.

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In fact, Leach and Stark had been so disappointed with their season that by the US Open in August they had decided to go their separate ways in 1998.Stark plans to resume playing with Zimbabwean Byron Black, while Leach will team up with South Africa’s Ellis Ferreira.

“We saved our best tennis for this week,” Leach said. “It’s probably not the smartest business move (to split), but to tell you the truth I didn’t realise that I’d be playing this well and I thought this might be my last year.”

The Americans looked like the perfect combination at times on Sunday and were in the driver’s seat for much of the encounter, although Bhupathi and Paes got off to a flying start, breaking Leach in the third game of the match.

But the fourth seeds broke back immediately and were rarely threatened on serve again.

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“When we got down a break, we were able to break right back, so Rick and I felt very confident from that point on,” Stark said.

Bhupathi, 23, and Paes, 24, the youngest combination in the eight-team field, won a Tour high six tournaments in 1997 and had looked sharp in disposing of sixth seeds Alex O’Brien and Sebastien Lareau in the semifinals.The Indian pair said they each planned to concentrate on singles early next year, but would play doubles in major event with a view to qualifying for the World Championship again next year.

Meanwhile, Stark left Hartford on Sunday night for Sweden to join the US Davis Cup squad.