NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Paes wins Hall of Fame doubles

Shailesh Soni

Newport once again proved a happy hunting ground for Leander Paes.

No, he did not retain the Hall of Fame singles crown he won last year, but won the doubles title instead.

After bowing out of the singles competition in the quarter-finals itself, he made up for the loss by winning the doubles title.

Partnering Australia's Wayne Arthurs, the man who beat him in the quarter-finals, Paes made sure he did not return empty-handed. The pair defeated S Sargsian and Chris Woodruff, 6-7(6), 7-6(7), 6-3 in a tough final to claim the title.

Once again Paes had to play some tough tennis to pull off the victory. It must have helped to have a big server like Arthurs with him.

Earlier, Paes and Arthurs recovered from problems in the second set to win their semi-final match against Dilucia/Tieleman 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

It was Paes's fifth title in the last five weeks, with four different partners. He now has 17 doubles titles to his name.

The Newport triumph was nothing big in terms of ATP points, though it gave him 144 points, with four bonus points. He had 62 points to defend here. His tally thus went up from 4913 to 4995.

In terms of money, Paes and Arthurs shared $20,300. Paes's total earnings from the event was $18,650, including $8,500 for reaching the quarter-finals of the singles.

Meanwhile, there's some good news for Paes. He received wildcard entries to the Shangai and Singapore Heineken Opens which follows the US Open. Which means he is safe as far as singles entries are concerned despite a dip in his rank, which should fall to around 130 next week, and probably further down after a month.

Paes will be back in action at the Infiniti Open in Los Angeles, which starts from July 26, where he will also be playing doubles with Jonas Bjorkman. Then he will be at the Montreal and Cincinnati Super 9's for doubles, and later at Indianapolis for the RCA Championships, playing singles. After which comes the US Open singles qualifiers and two weeks of US Open action.

After the US Open, Paes gets the much-needed three weeks break to return home in mid-September. Then follows the Shanghai and Singapore Heineken Opens, Eurocard Open, the 14th Paris Open and the Phoenix/ATP Tour World doubles championships.

In December, he will play the Mauritius Grass Challenger, where he is the defending champion. (The event is being held after three years). From Mauritius, he returns to India to play the Lucknow and Bangalore Challengers and then the Chennai Open in early January (new dates for the Gold Flake Open).

The coming months are going to be really tough for Paes. Unless he picks up about 350 points from four confirmed tournaments, his ranking is unlikely to improve for the seventh successive year. The year-end ranking closes before the December Challengers.