Paes and Bhupathi happy to be reunited

By Kunal Pradhan

India's former world number one doubles pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi say they are hitting top form again just at the right time.

"We feel really good and our confidence is really high right now. I think we are playing very close to our best tennis," Mahesh Bhupathi told Reuters from Rome on Wednesday.

After winning back-to-back ATP titles at Atlanta and Houston, Paes and Bhupathi have a difficult first-round match at the Rome Masters Series later on Wednesday, against Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt.

"We have to be at our best in Rome right from the start," said Bhupathi.

The Indian duo took the ATP circuit by storm in 1999, becoming the first pair in more than 45 years to reach the finals of all four Grand Slams in a year.

They won Wimbledon and the French Open, finished runners-up at the U.S. and Australian Opens and were the number one doubles pair in the world in the year-end rankings.

But 2000 was a bad year for them. Struggling with injuries and troubled by personal problems, Paes and Bhupathi split early in the year only to get back together just before the Sydney Olympics.

They reached the final of the 2000 ATP year-end world doubles championships in Bangalore and won the Japan Open in Tokyo but a series of defeats against unheralded opponents did not help their ranking.

Paes, 27, and Bhupathi, 26, finished last year in 29th place in the world.

A semifinal appearance in the Monte Carlo Masters event last month followed by the two tournament wins put them back on course.

"We picked up our second title in two weeks at Houston. The Indian Express keeps chugging along," Bhupathi said.

The pair are now seventh in the ATP doubles race and are setting their sights on the French Open later this month.