|
News & Press
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Paes-Dlohuy in US Open pre-quarters
New York, Aug 30 (PTI) Indian Davis Cuppers Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of men's doubles event of the US Open after winning their respective second round matches, though in contrasting manner.
The fourth seeded Bhupathi-Mark Knowles pair dominated in their 6-3 6-3 win over Swiss Yves Allegro and Horia Tecau of Romania.
The seventh seeded Paes and Lukas Dlouhy overcame a second set lapse to quell the challenge of Eduardo Schwank of Argentina and Potito Starace of Italy 6-4 1-6 6-3 in their second round match, yesterday.
Bhupathi and Knowles of Bahamas did not face even a single breakpoint in their match and broke their rivals once in the first set and twice in the second to clinch the issue in little over one hour.
Paes and his Czech partner Dlouhy quickly went ahead by pocketing the first set in 25 minutes, breaking their rivals once but Schwank-Starace fought back and drew parity by clinching the second.
Paes-Dlouhy got into their elements in the all important decisive third set, which they won after converting one of the two chances they got.
Now Bhupathi-Knowles take on Argentine pair of Maximo Gonzalez and Juan Monaco while Paes-Dlouhy face off against Rik De Voest of South Africa and Ashley Fisher of Australia. PTI
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Paes-Cara serve to victory at US Open
 Zeenews Bureau
New York, Aug 28: Leander Paes and Cara Black of Zimbabwe teamed up to end the run of American pair Melanie Oudin and Donald Young. The Indo- Zimbabwean pair won the match in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
The American pair posted no challenge for Paes and Cara as Leander broke Young’s service in the fourth game of second set and followed it by serving to victory in the next. With Indo-Zimbabwean pair getting 80% of the first serve in, the game lasted just 47 minutes.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Paes-Dlouhy win in first round of US open
BANGALORE: The Indo-Czech pairing of Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy, seeded seventh in the US Open men's doubles competition, battled back to score a three-set win over the Spanish combine of Oscar Hernandez and Albert Montanes in opening round action on Tuesday.
Paes and Dlouhy came through 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-4. Next up for Paes-Dlouhy is Argentina's Edward Schwank and Italian Potito Starace. The other Indians in the men's doubles draw are Bangaloreans Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna.
Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas, seeded fourth, open against the Swedish combine of Thomas Johansson and Johan Brunstrom. Bopanna, who has teamed up with Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, has been drawn in the bottom half. They begin their campaign against the dangerous French pairing of Marc Gicquel and Sebastien Grosjean.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Dlouhy wins in the Bronx
The Czech Republic's Lukas Dlouhy won the GHI Bronx Tennis Classic on Sunday, beating Argentina's Leonardo Mayer 6-0, 6-1. With this result Lukas jumped 25 spots in the ATP rankings and is #164.
Lukas also won the doubles title, playing with countryman Tomas Zib. In the final, they beat Andreas Beck/Martin Fischer 3-6,6-4,11-9.
What a great effort by Luky, who will be playing for the doubles title at the 2008 US Open in 1 week, playing with RTM's Leander Paes.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Benedikt Dorsch is finalist at Istanbul Challenger
Benedikt Dorsch is finalist at Istanbul Challenger, reaching his 2nd straight tournament final and 5th straight great tournament run!
Bene Dorsch is on fire! He got to the final of the Istanbul Challenger, losing to Frederico Gil of Portugal, 6-4,1-6,6-3, solidifying during this tournament his long winning streak in the past 5 weeks.
Bene is 18-4 in the last 5 tournaments, proving he is on the way up in the rankings and full of confidence for the upcoming events.
The four losses were all in 3 sets, showing Bene is bringing the German toughness to his game.
Here are his past results:
Spain Future - Semifinals
Recanati (Italy) Challenger - Semifinals Winnetka (USA) Challenger - Semifinals Penza (Russia) Challenger - Champion Istanbul (Turkey) Challenger - Finalist
What a great effort by Bene!!
Best of luck in the upcoming tournaments!!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Olympics: Paes, Bhupathi reach men's doubles QF
India's tennis warhorses Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi gave hope to their fans back home as they won the mens doubles match to reach the quaterfinals at the Olympic Games in Beijing on Wednesday. The two defeated Andre SA and Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-2. Earlier, the former world number one but now estranged pair of Paes and Bhupathi, who have come together again to shoulder the nation's Olympic campaign, gave a clinical display to sniff out a feeble challenge from Frenchmen Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-3 on way to reaching the second round in men's doubles.
Colavita USA Teams with Italian Tennis Star for 2008 US Open
Marketer of #1 Italian EVOO to Sponsor Olympian Flavia Pennetta for US Grand Slam Event Linden, NJ (August 8, 2008) -- Colavita USA announced plans to sponsor Italian tennis star Flavia Pennetta at the 2008 US Open, which begins August 25th and continues through September 7th at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, NY. Pennetta, who recently defeated Venus Williams at the 2008 French Open, is currently ranked 18th in the world in women’s singles. “We are thrilled to support Flavia at this important match,” said John J. Profaci, President of Colavita USA. “Our company is committed to sharing the best of Italy with the US market and Flavia is certainly at the top of her game.” Born in the seaport city of Brindisi in the Apulia region, Pennetta, 26, began playing tennis when she was five and turned pro in 2000. Regarded as Italy’s top female tennis player and a rising star on the WTA professional tennis circuit, Pennetta will represent her country in women’s singles and women’s doubles at the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. A six-time member of Italy’s Fed Cup Team, Pennetta captured her sixth career Tour singles title earlier this year in Acapulco. She is also ranked No. 38 in the world in doubles, with three WTA titles. Pennetta says she’s thrilled to partner with Colavita as she counts pasta among her favorite foods and applauds the company’s commitment to promoting healthy living through regular physical activity and sensible eating. Colavita has been a consistent champion for cycling, Italy’s favorite national pasttime, for many years. Italian nationals Davide Frattini and Luca Damiani are among the lead riders for the Colavita/Sutter Home Men’s Pro Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light, currently the #2 team in the US. Team Colavita ranks among the largest competitive cycling organizations in the world through sponsorship of the Colavita/Sutter Home Women’s Pro Team, 12 elite Team Colavita clubs which support 350 recreational cyclists throughout the US, a U23 racing team, and a junior development program.
Pennetta is the first tennis professional to join the ranks of the talented athletes who have partnered with Colavita. In 2006, Colavita USA was proud to collaborate with Silvia Fontana as she represented Italy in the figure skating competition at the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Lee-Hesh storm into 2nd round
Beijing, Aug 12: India’s star duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi stormed into the second round of the tennis doubles competition at the Beijing Olympics here on Tuesday.
Paes-Bhupathi beat Gael Monfils and Gilles Simons of France 6-3, 6-3 in a one sided match to move into the second round, where they will face off against the Brazilian pair of Sa & Mello.
Leander Paes, playing his fifth Olympic Games, and Mahesh Bhupathi, his fourth, began their campaign on a wining note in what could be their last attempt together to add an Olympic doubles medal to their already burgeoning collection.
The duo scored an emphatic 6-3, 6-3 win over French pair of Simon Gilles and Gael Monfils in just under an hour. Monfils, a semi-finalist, at the Roland Garros this year, boasts of a record of winning three junior Grand Slam titles in a single year and was World No. 1 in junior rankings in 2004.
Paes and Bhupathi will now face Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa of Chile who upset Czech pair, Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek.
The Indians have won three Grand Slams in partnership that goes back 13 years - though they rarely play together these days unless it is the Olympics, Asian Games or the Davis Cup.
Paes, who said he felt pumped by Abhinav Bindra's gold medal, and Bhupathi needed one break in the fourth game of the first set to win it in 25 minutes. In the second set, the pair stayed with serves till 3-3. The two then ran through the last three games, breaking twice to wrap up the match.
Soon after the win, Paes commented, 'It was not as easy a match as the score line might suggest. It was just that we won crucial points, or else they would have had a better chance.'
Paes was probably being cautious as the Indians never faced a break point on their serve in either set and in the first set won each point when they got their first serve in, which was two-third of the time.
Paes added, 'We played well enough. Somebody asked me if we had re-discovered the magic we had in our doubles game. My reply is: was it ever gone?'
'We will need to step up our game to ensure that we perform well against tougher opponents.'
Paes and Bhupathi served and volleyed very well and there were times, one could see glimpses of the old partnership. 'We have played together so much that it is always there. We know each other so well,' said Paes.
Paes, however, first pointed out that their second-round opponents could be the experienced Czech pair, Tomas and Stepanek. 'They are both good doubles players,' he said.
But a little later, Berdych and Stepanek lost to Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa of Chile.
When told about Melo and Sa's win, Paes said, 'We cannot afford to be easy in any match at this level. Everyone is so good.'
Melo and Sa have been very successful, having won three titles together in last 15 months and two of them in 2008.
Even more interestingly, Melo and Sa played and won the longest ever match at Wimbledon winning 28-26 in the final set lasting six hours and 13 minutes.
Should the Indians win their matches against the Chileans, they could run into the Swiss pair Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarter-finals.
(source)
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Paes wants medal icing on Olympic cake
Beijing: Not many can boast of competing in five Olympics but tennis ace Leander Paes is still not content with the feat and desperately seeks a medal to put icing on the cake. "It feels just great to think that I'm here to compete in my fifth Olympic Games. It's incredible. Surely winning a medal would make it even more memorable for me," the doubles specialist said here on Thursday. Having already tasted Olympic glory - he won the singles bronze in 1996 Atlanta Olympics - Paes is hungry for more and said he was peaking at the right time. "I won the bronze in Atlanta and I now I want a double. I'm peaking at the right time as well. I did not have a great start to the season but things gradually started falling in place and last five weeks have been really satisfying, something obvious from my rankings," Paes said after the Indian flag was raised in the Olympic Village. Paes will partner Mahesh Bhupathi and the seventh seeded Indians will kick off their campaign on Sunday against the French pair of Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon. "At this level, you have to take every match seriously. You just cannot afford to lower the guard. Every day would be tough battle," he said. Once they clear the hurdle, the 'Indian Express' pair would run into Czech duo of Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek. Interestingly, Stepanek has partnered both Paes and Bhupathi in the past on the ATP Tour. "It would be a tough match against the Czechs, especially because Stepanek knows our strength and weaknesses. But we too know a few things about him. In fact we won a title at Delray Beach (US) together. So I'm looking forward to an intense fight," Paes said. "Overall, I feel we have decent chance in the tournament. Whenever I come to Olympics, I feel young and happy. My coach Ric Leech has done a wonderful job and I'm feeling I'm in perfect shape for the event. I'm fit and just raring to go," said the Davis Cup captain, oozing verve. Paes said twice, including in 2004, he came close to winning doubles medals only to fail at the final hurdle and he wants to prove third time lucky. "The defeat in Athens still hurts. It rankles me to think that we lost the match when we were just two match points away from the medal. I want to right the wrong here," said Paes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
