Journalism of Courage
Less than fifteen minutes had passed when Andy Ram8217;s wide second serve met the tramline,loaded with heavy top spin. Mahesh Bhupathi,playing out of his comfort zone on the deuce-court side,ran around the angling ball and rocketed his forehand back cross-court. The return swerved out of reach of Jonathan Erlich,who was crouched in the middle of the net,and zipped away for a brilliant return winner.
A few more perfect returns later including an exquisite volley by Rohan Bopanna the Indians had broken the Israeli duo to take a 3-2 lead in the first doubles semi-final. Soon after wrapping the first set 6-4,Bhupathi8217;s chest met Bopanna8217;s,the Chennai crowds went delirious,and everything was expectedly right with the world.
Now fast forward 40 minutes and into the super tiebreak in the third set the glorified name given to the 10-point decider in doubles.
Serving to Bhupathi at 8-6 in the deciding set,Ram took a hard look down the T before kicking the ball wide of the forehand. The veteran of many a Grand Slam ran around it in time,but only managed to feed the ball straight to Erlich8217;s smashing racquet. The ball whistled past Bopanna8217;s left ear,seconds before the chair umpire called it as it was,9-6,Ram-Errrrrrlich, tongue roll echoing across the silence that was Nungambakkam8217;s centre court.
Three match points down,Bopanna gave the three-fourth full house enough reason to believe they could still turn the tide over. With two booming serves,they had reduced the lead to one point at 8-9,but unfortunately,it was on the 50th ranked Erlich8217;s serve. Finding their feet and hands during service returns has been the primary concern with the Indians all tournament long,and it was no different on the third match point as the Indians were cremated 4-6,6-3,10-8 at the penultimate hurdle.
Wrong side of the result
For the better part of his career,Bhupathi has played his doubles from the advantage side,and had great hands at the net to assist his crushing ground strokes. On Saturday,like during his three-match life span with Bopanna for a partner,Bhupathi played on the wrong side without a stand-out volleyer. The combination,so far at least,just hasn8217;t clicked. Something that the makeshift pair of Leander Paes and Janko Tipsarevic could boast of.
Evergreen reflexes
To become the only Indian representative on finals day,38-year old Paes8217;s evergreen reflexes at the net volleyed his team out of trouble in the super tiebreak,after the duo had gone 0-5 down in the decider to the second seeded American pairing of Rajeev Ram and Scott Lipsky. Tipsarevic,the top seeded singles player in this Chennai draw,shrugged off fatigue from earlier in the day,when he beat Japan8217;s Go Soeda in 80 minutes during the singles semis.
He was back for another gruelling 90 minutes in the doubles equivalent,holding his nerve to become the first finalist in both versions since Xavier Malisse in 2007. As the Serbian-Indian pair evened terms by making it five-a-piece,Lipsky and Ram managed just two more before the crowd favourites went on another five-point binge to win 6-2,6-7,10-7.
One ought to feel for Tipsarevic. With just the relief of the Bhupathi-Bopanna match in the interim,he adjusted brilliantly to two different styles of play,and will have to do it all over again if he wishes to be the first since Malisse to win both Chennai titles in the same year.
