Paes-Delaitre lose in RCA doubles final

NEW DELHI, AUG 23: Top seeds Leander Paes and Oliver Delaitre (France) lost in the final of the $750,000 RCA Championships at Indianapolis to second seeds Paul Haarhuis (Ned) and Jared Palmer (US) 3-6, 4-6, according to information received here.

This was Paes’ eighth final of the year, including the Wimbledon mixed doubles. Four of them were with regular partner Mahesh Bhupathi and one each with Jan Siemerink, Wayne Arthurs and Oliver Delaitre with just one loss so far, in the Australian Open final against Patrick Rafter and Jona Bjorkman.

In a closely contested final, it was the experience of Haarhuis which made the difference. His low returns proved to be quite a handful for both Paes and Delaitre.

Paes will now play the US Open qualifiers, while Bhupathi has teamed up with Wayne Ferreira in the 325,000 Hamlet Cup in Long Island. They are seeded second and meets Grant Silcock and Eric Taino in the first round.

That means Bhupathi will be missing the US Open qualifying and will team up with Paes indoubles.