Paes, Bhupathi set up summit clash

Paes defeated Italian Mose Navarra 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) in a match that hardly threw up surprises, but Bhupathi had to overcome a troublesome arm to beat Toumas Ketola of Finland 6-2, 7-6 (9-7). No one could remember when two Indians had played a Challengers final last.

Bhupathi had improved as the tournament progressed, but felt that his doubles partner had not really beentested in the past week.

Bhupathi’s Ketola-test today would have lasted much lesser than the one hour and 15 minutes which it eventually did, had his arm not behaved badly midway through the second set. A couple of bad games and Ketola was right back into the match, with a chance to nullify Bhupathi’s one-set advantage.

The Indian outslugged his opponent with some deep returns in the first set, at the same time serving really well. Bhupathi in fact, went for serve-and-volley against the baseliner who hesitated to come to the net on the fast centre court grass of South Club. Bhupathi earned breaks in the sixth and the eighth games to wrap up the set 6-2.

The second set proved to be quite different with Bhupathi sending down a few weak serves due to the painful arm. Games three to six were broken with the players drawing level at 3-3. The score remained level till the 12th game and the set was forced into the tie-break. There too, they appeared inseparable, till Ketola served a double fault at 7-7.

Paeshad much lesser problems against fourth seeded Navarra. Even the injuries that have hampered his movements in the recent past, did not trouble him today. Paes has been working hard to reach peak physical fitness and he acknowledged later that today’s game indicated that he was on the track towards achieving it. There was just one break in the entire match, in the eighth game of the first set with Paes moving up 5-3.

Both held their serves in the second set and Paes pulled out all his experience to win the tie-breaker 7-2, and the match in one hour 12 minutes. Success in doubles has made him a better singles player, Paes said later. It has also done wonders to his confidence and made him stronger. All these characters showed in the tie-breaker when he kept his cool to make the `tight’ situation look so easy.

Results

Singles (SF): Bhupathi bt Ketola 6-2 7-6 (9-7); Paes bt Navarra 6-3 7-6 (7-2)

Doubles (SF): Behr/Ran bt Fredriksson/Iwabuchi 4-6 6-1 6-4.