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Title No. 29 for Mahesh

By Our Special Correspondent

India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus kiss their trophies after winning the Canadian Open Masters title in Montreal on Sunday. — Photo: Elsa/Getty Images

NEW DELHI AUG. 11. Mahesh Bhupathi won his 29th career doubles title in the $2.2 million Canadian Open ATP Masters series tennis event in Montreal on Sunday. The effort was worth $50,000 for the strapping young man from Bangalore, who has become No.2 on the latest ATP doubles rankings behind his partner Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

The top-seeded Mahesh and Mirnyi beat the fourth-seeded Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Todd Woodbridge of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) in the final. The Indo-Belarussian pair, thus denied a 77th career doubles title for Woodbridge who was seeking to tie for the second place with John McEnroe. It was also a revenge triumph for Mahesh and Mirnyi for the Wimbledon final loss against Bjorkman and Woodbridge.

``We had four weeks off and coming back with a title like this gives us a lot of confidence going into Cincinnati and the U.S. Open. We served smart and we wanted to stay with them. We got a little lucky in the tie-break after going down 3-0 but we had played well in tie-breaks all week and didn't lose one.

"We are one of the most consistent teams right now, and if we keep it up, we will be challenging for the No.1 ranking at the end of the year," Mahesh was quoted by the ATP.

Ranked third in the Champions Race, behind the Bryan brothers Bob and Mike and the Bahamas-Canadian combination of Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, Mahesh and Mirnyi had earlier got a walkover in the semifinals from Martin Damm and Cyril Suk of the Czech Republic.

It was the third title of the season, and second Masters series title for Mahesh and Mirnyi following the one in Monte Carlo. The duo had won in Estoril before that. Mahesh and Mirnyi lost in the final of the Hamburg Masters series event, and the Queen's Club tournament in London apart from Wimbledon. Mahesh, playing with Joshua Eagle of Australia, had lost in the final of Sydney at the beginning of the season.

Incidentally, it was at Montreal that Mahesh, partnering Leander Paes, had won his maiden Masters series title.

``My win here in 1997 was very special because that was my first Tennis Masters Series title'', Mahesh said.

Mahesh and Mirnyi had won the U.S. Open title last year, and got back together in April this season, after Mahesh had struggled with other partners. The duo did play together for a week in Dubai in making the semifinals in February.

``I felt like we had improved a few things since Wimbledon. It was a very close match. Mahesh played as well as I have ever seen him play. I carried my singles play into doubles and with Mahesh playing well, it was a good combination," Mirnyi said.

While Mahesh has taken his prize purse from the Tour to $298,248 for the season, to be ranked 51st among the prizemoney leaders, Mirnyi has been placed at No.8 with $859,547, thanks to a healthy combination of his singles and doubles success. Wimbledon champion Roger Federer of Switzerland who won the doubles title in the Miami Masters series event with Mirnyi is at No.1 with $2,067,580.

Mahesh and Mirnyi have been seeded No.1 for the next Masters series event in Cincinnati this week.

Leander Paes has been placed fourth in the teams' race with David Rikl and has an individual doubles ranking of No.10 with 3070 points. Mahesh has 4835 points for his No.2 ranking while Mirnyi is on top with 5305 points.

Leander and Rikl have been seeded fifth in Cincinnati.

It is understood that Mahesh and Leander will play together the next week in Long Island, and will revert back to their regular partners for the U.S. Open and the rest of the season, leading to the World Doubles in Houston.

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