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Bhupathi-Lucic pair in deadlock

India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Croatia's teen star Mirjana Lucic were deadlocked, at a set each (6-3, 7-5) when rain stopped play yesterday in the mixed doubles quarterfinal match against Serena Williams and Max Mirnyi. Weather permitting, the match will be completed today.

It was a weird day at the US Open yesterday with a long three hour rain delay at the start of the day, then a couple of short rain delays in-between and finally, another one at night.

Mahesh for one will definitely be affected, as he is also due to partner Leander Paes in the doubles quarter final today against Luis Lobo (Argentina) and Javier Sanchez (Spain).

The biggest upset in the doubles came when second seeded Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde lost in the third round to Sandon Stolle (Australia) and Cyril Suk (Czech) 6-3, 3-6, 5-7.

The quarter final line-up for the doubles is: 16th seed Neil Broad and Piet Norval to play John De Jager and Robbie Koenig, 3rd seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Patrick Rafter to play 6th seeded Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, 4th seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes to take on the unseeded Luis Lobo and Javier Sanchez and 7th seeds Martin Damm and Jim Grabb to play 15th seeds Sandon Stolle and Cyril Suk.

Though the Leander/Mahesh and Bjorkman/Rafter pairings appear favoured to meet in the finals, there are a few hot teams still left in the draw. Stolle/Suk are always tough, as the Woodies found out yesterday, and Damm/Grabb have looked good this year (especially Jim Grabb, who had some good success in doubles). Knowles/Nestor, too, are always capable of pulling off an upset or three.

Incidentally, Mark Woodforde was asked yesterday in the US Open site's chatroom "After the Woodies and the Dutchmen, Haarhuis and Eltingh, leave, who do you expect to see as the teams to carry the torch and dominate doubles in the future?"

Mark's answer was, "We are not leaving just yet .. but, a team like Paes/Bhupathi or Bjorkman/Rafter should lead the way in the future".

In the boy's singles event, India's Vijay Kannan will play unseeded K J Hippenstein of USA in the second round. The other Indian, Manoj Mahadevan will play Bob Borella of Denmark, who defeated the 3rd seed Andreas Vinciquerra of Sweden. Incidentally, Bob Borella beat Kannan at Wimbledon.

In the boy's doubles event, Manoj Mahadevan and Vijay Kannan lost a fighting match to the second seeds Jeanpierre and Haehnel 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (3).

It was a fighting game, a tremendous match against two of the best junior talents in the world. This is the first time that Kannan and Mahadevan are playing together in any big tournament, incidentally.

In the girl's singles first round, India's Uzma Khan lost to Ansley Cargill of USA, 0-6, 5-7.

Uzma was nervous in the first set, but came back strongly, fighting for every point before succumbing in straight sets.