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DEAR REDIFF

Bhupathi takes only 13 minutes to level the score 1-1

Mahesh Bhupathi needed just 13 minutes and 23 short points to put India on par with Italy in their first round World Group Davis Cup tie on Saturday morning.

The 23-year-old Indian completed a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 rout of David Sanguinetti to finish the second singles of the tie, postponed by rain on Friday, with Italy leading 1-0. Andrea Gaudenzi defeated Prahlad Srinath, 6-0, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 in the opening rubber.

Resuming play at 2-3 in the third set, he held his serve to make it 3-3 and made a decisive break in the next game to sail to 6-4 on the clay courts of Genoa's Cambiaso tennis centre.

Bhupathi, a doubles specialist ranked 244th in the world and India's top player in the absence of an injured Leander Paes, overcame Sanguinetti, a Davis Cup debutant, with aggressive play, winning volleys and returns.

In each of the three sets, the Indian player broke the opponent twice and lost his serve once.

Sanguinetti said the tension of his Davis Cup debut certainly played a role in his defeat. "I was very tense, I played well below my standards. I was also unlucky with Friday's suspension of play, which came as I was growing in confidence and my opponent looked increasingly tired,'' he said.

He was included in the Italian team in absence of the higher-ranked Renzo Furlan, who's in doubtful form.

Bhupathi won the first two sets 6-4, 6-4 with a mix of aggressive serving and net play backed with some crushing drives from back of the court. He was broken while serving for the second set at 5-2, but finally won it in the tenth game, after saving three break points. He then took a 2-0 lead in the third set, but saw his serve broken in the fourth game. Perhaps the errors were a sign of weariness because Mahesh had given the match his all

On Saturday morning, he was clearly bent on finishing the match quickly and in the process upset Italy's gameplan for the day.

''My idea was to keep Bhupathi on court for as long as possible, to tire him out for the doubles,'' Sanguinetti said after the match.

However, the world's third-ranked doubles player made his intentions clear with two big serves to win the unfinished sixth game.

He then kept the pressure up as a nervous Sanguinetti served, and broke him at 15, forcing him into repeated errors.

Then came the display which truly revealed Bhupathi's determination. He rattled the opponent with four solid serves, one of them an ace, to hold the eighth game at love.

Across the net, Sanguinetti appeared to have realised that it was all over. Although the Italian held serve in the ninth game and led 15-30 when Bhupathi served for the match, there was no stopping the Indian's victory march.

''Davis Cup-wise, this is the best match I have played from start to finish,'' a beaming Bhupathi said after the game.

Non-playing captain Jaideep Mukherjea agreed. ''I have seen him play a lot. He took a set off Petr Korda last year (when India played the Czech Republic). But this match he stayed till the end.''

UNI