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Tennis
India through to next round in style
BEIRUT, FEB. 9. As executions go, this was far from the medieval stuff, very much lacking in drama. Even the few onlookers didn't seem curious, or too excited either. And, in the end, it was swift as a stileto between the shoulder blades.
It took Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India all of an hour and 23 minutes to close in on the net together to shake hands with Ali Hamadeh and Patrick Chucri after a 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 victory in the doubles rubber of the Asia Oceania Group I first round Davis Cup tie against Lebanon here on Saturday and it steered the home team to an unbeatable 3-0 lead.
And that - when the players shook hands and walked off the court - was about the first time that any spectator might have moved to seat edge, surely with the intention of departing, of course! Then again, the day's result, which carried India to the final round of the Asia Oceania zone competition - it will take on the winner of the tie between New Zealand and Indonesia from April 5 to 7 - was very much in keeping with the trend in a tie in which the visiting side has lost a mere 14 games in nine sets over two days.
On Friday, Paes lost a mere three games in beating Karim Alayli while Harsh Mankad gave away five games while getting past Hamadeh. In the event, this is by far India's most authoritative overseas victory in the competition in a long, long time.
``It has been two good days for me here. It's always nice to win three matches in a row. I don't enjoy anything as much as playing Davis Cup and I am going to be out there for the reverse singles tomorrow,'' said Paes.
This was also India's third away victory in four matches in 13 months. Last year, the team had beaten China and Japan away before losing to the United States in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the World Group qualifying round in October.
As a competition, today's match had very little. For a quarter of an hour at the start, and then for a brief while early in the third set, Hamadeh and Chucri aimed to match a pair that they could never really match.
``They were just too good for us today. These are guys you read about in the papers a lot and watch on television. It is nice to play them,'' said Hamadeh, who, for two years, was Bhupathi's room-mate at college in the United States and won a NCAA title with the Indian.
From 1-2 in the first set, the Indians won seven games in a row, gave Chucri a face-saving service game in the second set, and then raced through it too.
It was only in the third set that the Lebanese pair suggested that they might force the visitors - winners of three Grand Slam titles - to dig just a little deeper.
In the end, it was a tribute to the Indian pair's professionalism and skills that they found a break on Chucri's serve in the eighth game before Paes came back from 0-30 down to serve out the match.
``The court was lightning fast and we just aimed to get more balls back. It worked out well for us,'' said Bhupathi.
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