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Tennis
The Czech cruise continues
By Avinash Nair
LANGUISH ON THE LINE CALL: Mark Knowles (right) blows hot after the chair umpire penalised him for code violation while his partner Brian MacPhie looks downcast in the semifinals of the Touchtel World Doubles Challenge Cup in Bangalore on Friday. Knowles and MacPhie lost in straight sets. - Photo: K. Gopinathan
BANGALORE, FEB. 1. Giant-killers Petr Pala and Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic were on the prowl again. Having sidelined the Indian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes on Thursday, the brothers-in-law were hungry for more. Today, it was the top- seeded pair of Don Johnson and Jared Palmer which was at the receiving end as Pala and Vizner came up with high-quality tennis to register a 6-4, 6-1 win in just 78 minutes to book a place in the final of the Touchtel World Doubles Challenge Cup at the Kingfisher-McDowell KSLTA court here.
Earlier, Rick Leach (U.S.) and Ellis Ferreira (RSA) capitalised on an early line-call dispute by Mark Knowles (Bahamas) and Brian MacPhie (U.S.) to cruise to a 6-2, 6-4 victory in the first semifinals.
Pala and Vizner came into the tourney as the fourth seeds. Pala, in particular, looked in terrific touch as the Czech duo went about its business in a professional manner. After beginning the tourney on an inauspicious note - losing to Mark Knowles and Brian MacPhie in three hard-fought sets - Pala and Vizner did not look back. If de Jager and Robbie Koenig were dismantled in under an hour, the
Indian combination too did not prove much of a worry. ``We had to change our travel plans,'' was what Pala said after the straight-set victory over Bhupathi and Paes.
``We are thrilled to be in a World Doubles championship event final,'' said the duo in unison after its victory today. And if the questions came thick and fast at the post-match conference, the battle in the middle was not as pacy.
If Don Johnson and Jared Palmer encouraged visions of a comfortable time today, despite making the semifinals only by a whisker, they proved to be short-sighted. Palmer was broken in the third game and that was enough for the Czechs to close out the set at 6-4 with Vizner angling his shot past a out-stretched Don Johnson.
If it was Jared Palmer who compensated for Johnson's loss of touch in the match on Thursday, the righthander was equally guilty of squandering away crucial points today.
The second set saw a spate of breaks, again on the Johnson-Palmer side, as Pala and Vizner raced to a 4-0 lead, the breaks coming in the first and third games. Though Johnson held his serve after surviving a break point, Palmer was not so lucky. After saving four break points, Johnson netted a backhand volley to give the set and match to Pala and Vizner.
The first semifinal virtually ended by the third game of the first set. A line-call with Mark Knowles serving 0-15 saw the Bahamas-U.S. combination questioning the decision. When Brian MacPhie hit the ball into the stands in anger, chair umpire Nitin Kannamwar `warned' the pair. But, serving 0-40, Knowles would have nothing of the decision and when he again took the matter to the ATP supervisor, Gerry Armstrong, and then bad mouthed the chair umpire, a penalty-point was awarded to Ferreira and Leach. Knowles and MacPhie were never the same again as they lost their assurance and frustration set in.
If MacPhie looked steady and sharper in his serves, Knowles, fresh from the Australian Open triumph, committed far too many errors to gift-wrap the match to their rivals. Knowles surrendered two service games in the first set as well as the third game of the second set, enough for the Ellis-Rick Leach combine to make the final in just 56 minutes.
Knowles-MacPhie progress
Mark Knowles (Bahamas) and Brian MacPhie (U.S.) joined Petr Pala and Vizner in the semifinals on better set quotient. In the last tie on Thursday, Knowles and MacPhie defeated De Jager and Robbie Koenig of South Africa 6-3, 7-6 (7- 3) in 84 minutes. The set quotient saw the winners (5-3), ahead of Bhupathi and Paes' 4-3 score.
The results (semifinals): Ellis Ferreira (SA)/Rick Leach (U.S.) bt Mark Knowles (Bah)/Brian MacPhie (U.S.) 6-2, 6-4; Petr Pala/Pavel Vizner (Czech) bt Don Johnson/Jared Palmer (U.S.) 6-4, 6-1.
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