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Tennis
Bhupathi and Paes help recreate old magic
By Nirmal Shekar
Leander Paes (right) acknowledges the crowd for its support after he and Mahesh Bhupathi had surmounted the challenge from the pairing of Thomas Johansson of Sweden (behind Leander) and Romania's Andrei Pavel in their pre- quarterfinal match in the Tata Open in Chennai on Thursday. The Indian duo won in three sets. -- Photo: Vino John
CHENNAI, JAN. 3. You didn't need to be a wimp to start worrying about a few things the moment Ivo Karlovic walked on to the centre court of the Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium at the Tata Open on Thursday.
For one thing, at 6ft 11in, as he reached up to serve, he was a sure threat to low flying aircraft. For another, as he consistently fired guided missiles from that height, you worried about the ballboys and the linesmen, about their agility and their ability to move away from the line of fire.
And then, you worried for Karlovic himself. Would he have found a suitable enough bed for himself at the Taj Coromandel? And how would he squeeze himself into an economy class seat on airplanes? There was a lot to worry about, really.
But the one thing you didn't have to worry about was Guillermo Canas's ability to stand up to the challenge offered by the Croatian beanpole in a second round match. The top seeded Argentine proved more than equal to the task as he dismantled the big man's power game for a 7-5, 6-2 victory on an evening when the tournament, for the first time, took on its familiar character with Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes taking centre stage in the following match.
When the B&P firm is in business, that is where sport and theatre meet, each giving and taking a little. And the atmosphere was breathtakingly electric and the decibel level at its familiar high as the Indian pair got past Thomas Johansson of Sweden and Andrei Pavel of Romania in a dramatic three-setter 6- 3, 4-6, 6-4.
This is where it all began for Bhupathi and Paes five years ago. And this is where they come for spiritual rejuvenation. It's a sort of pilgrimage for the three-time Grand Slam champions and so it is for the thousands who shout themselves hoarse in the Indian duo's cause.
And Bhupathi and Paes have time and again - barring the aberration of 2001 - rewarded their fans for the warmth of the welcome with gladiatorial heroics on the court.
Today, both were good in patches, something that was to be expected of players who were coming from a long break. But they did, with their mere presence, and finally the victory, help recreate the magic of old in the Chennai Tour event.
Johansson and Pavel, both accomplished singles players and still active in the quarterfinal stage of singles play here this week, rebounded wonderfully to make a match of it this evening in front of the biggest crowd of the week.
When Johansson was down 15-40 on serve in the eighth game of the second set, it seemed a matter of moments. As it turned out, it took another 45 minutes of tough work before the Indians ended up winners in an hour and 50 minutes.
After fighting off two breakpoints to hold to 4-4 in the second set on Johansson's serve, the Indian pair's rivals promptly broke Bhupathi's serve in the very next game before Pavel fought off a breakpoint to hold serve and knot up the match.
Both teams held serves comfortably in the third set before the Indians stepped on the pedal in the 10th game to break Johansson without losing a point to storm into the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, although Canas grew up idolising the best tennis player his country has produced - Guillermo Vilas - it is doubtful if he has the same talent as the Argentine icon when it comes to writing poetry.
Yet, there was something surely poetic about the way Canas, a good 11 inches shorter than Karlovic and surely not gifted with the ability to serve consistently at 200-plus kph, took apart the big man with superb passes and service returns that wouldn't have hurt Andre Agassi's reputation if the great man had claimed them as his own.
Karlovic, aged 22, turned pro at the rather advanced age of 20 two years ago. Since then he has done little to draw attention to himself, playing mostly in the obscure realms of Challengers and Futures.
But the confidence and skills that the young man has displayed in Chennai in recent days, first in qualifying for the event and then in getting past the 1999 champion Byron Black in the first round, marked him out as a player to watch.
And Canas knew he had a job on his hands going into the match today. He knew it would ultimately come down to how well he returned and, as it turned out, he did very well there for the most part.
But it wasn't easy; nor was it expected to be. Not only does Karlovic have a powerful serve but when the ball is slammed down from such height, the server has many options in terms of the angles.
Then again, Canas is not ranked No. 14 in the world for nothing. He knows a thing or two about how to handle big servers. When you play these big guys with a cannonball serve and pile-driver groundstrokes, you first break them in the mind. Then the game breaks down on its own.
This is exactly what the coffee coloured - medium roast, to be sure - Canas did this evening. He consistently returned to Karlovic's bootlaces and the big man must have ended up with a back problem reaching down for the balls.
``He likes short points. So I was concentrating on making him play more balls, on keeping the ball in play,'' said Canas. ``His serve is huge.''
Canas broke Karlovic's serve in the third game of the opening set but the Croatian broke back in the sixth, hitting some good returns before the top seed made two forehand errors in a row.
What followed might have sent a cold shiver down a lesser player's spine. But it never got to Canas.
Serving in the seventh game, Karlovic blasted four aces in a row. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. It was frightening stuff. And it brought back hundreds of fragments of memories concerning another Croatian.
How many times have we seen Goran Ivanisevic do that at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open and elsewhere! But, surely, Karlovic is no Goran clone, although the Wimbledon champion is, predictably, his idol. The resemblance starts and ends with the serve.
Canas himself was hardly thinking of such similarities as he turned wonderfully aggressive with his returns in the 11th game to break Karlovic. He then staved off two breakpoints to hold for the set in the next game.
In the second set, Canas stormed ahead 2-1 but then Karlovic played his best return game of the match, one in which he hit a breathtaking backhand pass up the line. But from there, Canas was very much in command as he raced home in quick time.
``I had a stomach illness in the morning. I was all right at the start of the match but late in the second set I had trouble bending,'' said Karlovic.
Calatrava ousts Hrbaty
Meanwhile, late on Wednesday evening, Alex Calatrava brought up a big Spanish conquest as he fought off two matchpoints in the 10th game of the second set to beat the sixth seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 to make the quarterfinals.
In the last match of the day, Hrbaty looked to be coasting before Calatrava raised his game just when it appeared that the noose was tightening on him.
Serving at 15-40 in the 10th game of the second set, Calatrava staved off two breakpoints to hold and then broke the Slovakian's serve in the very next game as Hrbaty hit a forehand long. From there, the slide was quick for Hrbaty who lost five games in a row from 2-1 in the decider.
Meanwhile, Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand kept the Asian challenge alive in singles as he ousted last year's finalist Andrei Stoliarov of Russia 6-2, 6-1.
lThe results:
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Guillermo Canas (Arg) bt Ivo Karlovic (Cro) 7-5, 6-2; Jiri Vanek (Cze) bt Noam Okun (Isr) 3-6, 7-6, 6-4; Karol Kucera (Slo) bt Dennis Van Scheppingen (Ned) 7-5, 7-6(2); Fabrice Santoro (Fra) bt Irakli Labadze (Geo) 6-2, 6-3.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes (Ind) bt Thomas Johansson (Swe) and Andrei Pavel (Rom) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Wednesday's results:
Singles (pre-quarterfinals):Alex Calatrava (Esp) bt Dominik Hrbaty (Slo) 2-6, 7-5, 6-2; Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) bt Andrei Stoliarov (Rus) 6-2, 6-1.
Doubles (first round): Frantisek Cermak & Petr Luxa (Cze) bt Jeff Coetzee & Sander Groen (Ned) 6-4, 6-7, 6-1; Tomas Cibulec & Ota Fukarek (Cze) bt Tim Crichton & Jordan Kerr (Aus) 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. Quarterfinals: Byron Black (Zim) & Fabrice Santoro (Fra) bt Jaroslav Levinsky & David Skoch (Cze) 6-3, 6-1.
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