'We played well. It was a
matter of a few points'

Faisal Shariff

A year back, these guys would have won this match without any fuss. It is one of those things," said Enrico Piperno, Bhupathi's coach after the duo's loss to Palmer and O'Brien in the last of the league games. The match was a dead rubber -- with only pride for the vanquished American pair to fight for after they were ousted, and an unbeaten record for the Indians to maintain -- in the league stage of the tournament.

Paes & Bhupati

"O'Brien and Palmer were not in the match. At 6-2, 2-0 and a point for 3 love, I was getting ready to leave," added Piperno.

It was a close game and sometimes in matches as close as this, it is that extra bit which a team needs to lift itself. The pair lacked that in Bangalore on Friday night.

With 44 unforced errors, Paes/Bhupathi seemed a touch complacent though they refuted the charge.

"We played well. It was a matter of a few points. We should have closed it out. At 4-5, Alex made some great passes. If at any moment in the tournament we slackened it was on Friday. Saturday is the day we come out and fire on all cylinders. And play for keeps," said Paes.

Bhupathi, on the other hand, was pretty disappointed and showed it when he admitted that it was a bad game.

"We let them back. My serve and overhead are not as good as they used to be. Things haven't gone our way this year but we will come back and fight," he added.

On semi-final opponents, the top-seeded pair of Leach and Ferreira made the semi-finals on better set average, Bhupathi remarked, "We have played them four times and have won on three occasions, so we have a good record against them."