Rebuilding broken castle with granites of trust

THEY ARE back where they belong. The good thing about Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who recaptured the old magic at the Roland Garros by winning the French Open doubles title for the second time, is that they have so much more to progress.

If anything, the title in Paris is just the first big step in what could be a long return journey towards excellence. It is going to be one of the milestones, a stone showing the altitude rather than the distance, as the crack Indian pair bids to scale the Everest all over again, after having called off their previous attempt under rough weather!

More than the title, which was coming the Indian pair's way, as if driven by destiny, what was most heartening to behold was the manner the Indian duo looked adversity on the face and delivered the knock-out punch in the final.

The Czech pair of Petr Pala and Pavel Vizner, on a hot streak this season, were serving for the first set at 5-3, 40-0. Weaker hearts would have started thinking about the second set, when Mahesh pounced on a serve to smash an inside-out return winner, that saw the Czech rooted to the ground, literally with feet of clay.

Leander saved the second set point with another superlative return, and the Czech pair could not bear the heat any more, and collapsed, like many better teams have done before. It was this ability to intimidate the opponents, even when the chips are down, rather than allow the situation to overwhelm them, that has helped the Indian pair twist many a match around in its favour.

Another key factor was the manner Leander and Mahesh handled the tie-break, like born champions. Yet, luck was willing to support the Indians on the super Sunday, as Pala put a volley wide after saving one setpoint, despite being right on top of the net.

Once they were out of the woods, Leander and Mahesh were smashing the shots with a trace of contempt, which saw them commit some mistakes as well. But then, they could afford the mistakes as they were on a cruise mode.

A close look at the draw of 64 shows that Leander and Mahesh did beat four seeded teams, but they were not the big names except for the third-seeded Jiri Novak and David Rikl who themselves were given only four games by the Indian team.

Beating the 11th, 13th and 15th teams is no great achievement for the unseeded Indian pair which had started every tournament as the No. 1 team in 1999, when it made four Grand Slam finals, winning the French Open and the Wimbledon.

Of course, it is no fault of Leander and Mahesh that the better teams did not cross their path. Those teams, like the top-seeded Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Todd Woodbridge of Australia perished even before they could test the Indian team, which knew a thing or two about making the maximum of the favourable situation.

The Grand Slams give enough breathing time for Leander and Mahesh to be at their blasting best for every match, despite the fact that they play the mixed doubles as well with remarkable success.

They may have jumped back to be the third best team behind Bjorkman/Woodbridge and Pala/Vizner in the team race, but the real worth of Leander and Mahesh is measured by the fact that they are only the 23rd and ninth best in the merit list of individual doubles rankings.

Mahesh has 2730 points and Leander 2094 points, and that does not add up favourably against the 5100 points held by Todd Woodbridge at the top.

The fact that they had lost in the first round of the U.S. Open last year and the first round of the Australian Open this year has not helped Leander and Mahesh, in the individual honours race. But things have started falling in place.

Leander and Mahesh will be the first to acknowledge that they have a lot of work left to be done in the months to come in fine- tuning themselves to be at their best possible form, when they can match the best teams on their own terms.

A warning signal was given when Leander and Mahesh lost to wild card entrants Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt, missing a matchpoint in the second set tie-break and slithering down from being 5-0 up in the decider, in the first round of the Masters series event in Rome.

It was a rare defeat from such a strong position for Leander and Mahesh, who lost first round to another wild card pair of Nicolas Kiefer and Nicolas Lapentti in the next Masters series event in Hamburg, the following week.

It must have been disillusioning after the back to back titles in Atlanta and Houston, but Leander and Mahesh were glad that they were getting rid of their bad form before the mega event in Paris.

Maybe the first round defeats were a good omen for Leander and Mahesh, who had gone through a similar patch before winning their maiden Grand Slam men's doubles title in 1999.

The Indian pair had lost first round in Monte Carlo and Hamburg then, and Mahesh in partnership with Tim Henman had also lost first round at the Italian Open in Rome the following week.

Clay is the favourite surface of Leander and Mahesh, as they rarely miss a return, the key to doubles success. The signals were loud and clear when Leander and Mahesh reached the semifinals of the Masters series event in Monte Carlo in the third week of April, losing only to the eventual champions Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge.

Leander and Mahesh recovered from being 4-5, 0-40 down to beat Johan Landsberg of Sweden and Tom Vanhoudt of Belgium 7-5, 6-0 in the first round in Monte Carlo, and they went on to win two more matches, albeit in three sets, showing their ability to fight it out. Some of us did get the feeling that the French Open title was coming our way, even then.

Now the immediate question is whether Leander and Mahesh can win the Wimbledon. If they play to potential, the Indian pair is capable of winning anything, but the Wimbledon trophy this time may be tough to grasp, as the grass may prove a little too quick for them at this stage.

They are nowhere close to being at their best, and thus it would be a miracle if they capture Wimbledon. That may sound a teaser, but Leander and Mahesh are quite adept at proving people wrong.

If they stay healthy, the U.S. Open will give them their best chance to add a second Grand Slam title this season. Of course, there is the World Doubles championship to be won in Bangalore at the end of the year, after three previous losses in the finals including the one last year.

Well, the year 2000 has had a remarkable impact on the attitude of Leander and Mahesh, with its harsh lessons. The two learnt lessons worth a life-time, as they grappled with injuries, defeats, misunderstanding and eventually the Olympic failure, when dreams of a gold went up in smoke in the second round.

They are better off now after going through a harrowing time, and the broken castle is being slowly rebuilt, with granites of trust.

At 27 and 28, Mahesh and Leander have the whole world in front of them to dominate for the next few seasons. The world of doubles needs them, as much as they need the millions of dollars from the doubles events.

Last year was not lost wholly, and has been invested in assimilating the realities of life, which will stand Leander and Mahesh in good stead, as they prepare to reap the rewards.

Having fished out peace from troubled waters, like a magician pulling out a rabbit from a hat, it is not going to be that difficult for Leander and Mahesh to win tennis matches on the big stage. They are at peace, preparing for the battles.

KAMESH SRINIVASAN

New Delhi

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