Paes goes screaming into semis

Jaipur, Dec 9: Today was not a quiet day at the Jai Club. Dogs barked outside, the 500-odd kids and middle-aged men screamed, a couple of ...

Jaipur, Dec 9: Today was not a quiet day at the Jai Club. Dogs barked outside, the 500-odd kids and middle-aged men screamed, a couple of babies wailed and something that sounded like a foghorn kept going off every now and then.

On court, Leander Paes, Barry Cowan and Mose Navarra kept up the volume and stepped up the tempo. In Paes and Cowan8217;s case, letting off steam worked, they won. Navarra lost to Cowan and later received a 200 fine for verbal abuse. Paes was let off, his bank balance intact.

Paes, playing Finland8217;s Tuomas Ketola in the last eight of the Bikaji ATP Challenger here looked in amazing touch at the beginning of the match. Once he had read Ketola8217;s game, Paes just outthought, unnerved and dismantled him 6-3 in the first set and led 3-0 in the second. Now came the not-so-good part.

He screamed twice at the chair umpire for 8220;bad calls8221;, the second occasion after he hit out when leading 3-0 in the second set. Ketola was down 15-30 and went on to win that game, break back and win the setwith some superb tie-break play. In the third set, Paes, who had obviously got his temper and game under control again played smartly again, making Ketola make the mistakes to win 6-3.

Paes later said that the call threw him totally off rhythm. He also said that the reacting and concentration lapse was a 8220;learning experience8221; and a manifestation of the 8220;fire in my belly8221; and the 8220;desire to get my singles going again.8221; Whatever it is, it8217;s bad behaviour. Tomorrow he plays top seed Paradorn Srichaphan.

Results

Men singles: 1-Paradorn Srichaphan Tha bt 7-Satoshi Iwabuchi Jpn 6-4 6-4; 5-Leander Paes Ind bt 3-Tuomas Ketola Fin 6-3 6-7 3-7 6-3; 8-Barry Cowan GBr bt Mose Navarra Ita 6-1 2-6 7-6 7-5; 4-Jamie Delgado GBr bt 6-Takahiro Terachi Jpn conceded. Doubles: QF: Tomas Anzari Cze/ Satoshi Iwabuchi Jpn bt Justin Layne GBr/ Manoj Mahadevan Ind 7-6 4 6-3; Semis: Ivo Karlovic Cro/ Yuri Schukin Rus bt Martin Hromec/ Vladimir Platenik Svk 7-6 4 6-3.