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Bhupathi/Sugiyama rally to enter mixed doubles semis

Shailesh Soni

It was Leander Paes at Wimbledon; now it's Mahesh Bhupathi who is having a dream run at the U.S. Open Tennis championships.

The Indian doubles No. 1 had a great day yesterday, moving into the semi-finals of the mixed and men's doubles events. Partnering Ai Sugiyama, Bhupathi got past the eighth seeded pair of Mary Pierce and John-Laffnie DeJager 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the mixed doubles quarter-finals.

The match was more eventful than the men's quarter-finals. In the first set, Bhupathi/Sugiyama got the break on the very first chance they got, off the serve of Mary Pierce in game 3, to go 2-1 up. Bhupathi/Sugiyama were up 4-2 when Sugiyama dropped serve in the eighth game and it was all even at 4-4. DeJager was taken to two deuces and two break chances in the next game, but he held on. This was followed by Bhupathi going down 0-40, fighting off two set points and then dropping the set at 4-6.

In the second set, Pierce, Bhupathi and DeJager won their first service games. In the fourth game Sugiyama faced a break attempt at 30-40, but she went on to hold it. Next, it was Pierce's turn to go down 0-40 and drop serve, followed by Bhupathi, who also dropped serve after a deuce in the next game. A double fault by DeJager was followed by three deuces and three more break chances for Bhupathi/Sugiyama in game 7 which they converted to go up 4-3. The set ended with Bhupathi serving an ace and it was 4-6, 6-4.

In game 2 of the third set, Bhupathi served yet another ace. Then Bhupathi/Sugiyama had triple break chances off DeJager's serve in game 4, and got the break at 0-40. They soon went up to 4-2 after Bhupathi held his serve at love. When they had Pierce down at 0-40 in the next game, they had won 11 points in a row. They got the break there and then the match was over, with Sugiyama firing an ace in the final game and finishing it off in style.

This will be Bhupathi's fourth mixed doubles Grand Slam semi-final with four different partners (French Open 1997 with Rika Hiraki, Australian Open '98 with Caroline Vis and Wimbledon '98 with Mirjana Lucic).

Bhupathi/Sugiyama play Alexandra Stevenson and Brian MacPhie in the semi-finals later today.

Alexandra Stevenson and Brian MacPhie won an all-American battle, topping Lilia Osterloh and Scott Humphries 6-2, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.

In the other semi-final, the American pair of Kimberly Pro and Donald Johnson will take on the Australian pair of Rennae Stubbs and Todd Woodbridge.