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Paes-Bhupathi maintain streak

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhuapthi, the world's third ranked doubles combo, won the first round match of the $675,000 Singapore Heineken Open, on Tuesday.

They defeated the pair of M.Keil and T J Middleton 7-6(4), 6-4.

The Indians will now face unseeded Toumas Ketola and Laurence Tieleman, who beat Karsten Braasch and Micheal Kolhmann 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) in their first round match.

Paes/Bhupathi's came here steamed-up from their win on Monday over the Woodies in the Shanghai Open finals.

It was a great win for Paes/Bhupathi over the second best doubles team ever in history after John McEnroe and Peter Fleming.

The Woodies have 54 titles now, and are second only to the McEnroe-Fleming pair, who have 57 career titles.

For the Indians, Shanghai provided the 5th ATP title of the year -- they had won the Doha, Dubai, Chenna and Rome Opens before the Shanghai Open win.

This, allied to the 6 titles won last year, give them 11 for their career thus far. Interestingly, each time they entered an ATP final, they have won it.

Adding the three challenger titles early last year, they have now 14 tournament finals, losing only one at the Hartford ATP doubles championship last year.

Points-wise, the Shanghai Open was not big, as the 195 points would make it only the 9th highest points total they have had in their career - but the kind of win they had will help in their confidence.

Their wins over the top pair of Eltingh/Haarhuis at the beginning of the 1997 summer gave them the confidence that they had it in them to go right to the top last year, but a few losses this year to some of the experienced veterans must certainly have made them wonder if they have been improving enough to reach the very top.

This win should put most of those doubts to rest, and set them on track to go all out towards the world number one spot on the ATP rankings.

Their rankings however won't change this week. The 289 points from the Singapore title last year will go out and will be replaced by 195 points from the Shanghai Open. A title at Singapore this week, however, will take them higher when the next rankings are releases, next Monday.

In the other doubles match, Martin Damm and Peter Tarmmacchi defeated Paradom Srichaphan and Rogier Wassen 7-5, 6-4.

In a singles match which will be of interest to Leander, Kenneth Carlsen defeated 7th seed Paul Haarhuis 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 to enter second round, where he will face the winner of the match between Paes and Martin Damm.

Leander will play his first round match tomorrow against Damm.