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VIEWPOINT: SPORTSWATCH
Bhupathi-Paes II
Indian tennis' most enduring soap opera is ready
for a happier sequel
By Sharda Ugra
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The Indian duo have grabbed their second chance with greater maturity.
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Breaking up is hard
to do, or so the old song said. But sentimental songs are hardly sources
of abiding truths. Making up-for lost time and lost chances-is far, far
tougher.
When Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes walked
across the red clay into a bear hug at Roland Garros, it was difficult
to see where the relief ended and the celebration began. Their form in
the final was scratchy, their tennis, patchy and thank God, no marketing
guru had picked that match to showcase men's doubles. But they will take
their silverware any which way, style or struggle, because neither life
nor professional sport hand out too many second chances.
The Bhupathi-Paes partnership has often been
compared to a soap opera in which friends turn foes turn business partners,
and protagonists and antagonists rapidly change places and friends and
families take sides. During its most tumultuous episodes, one exasperated
friend of the two described it thus, "First there's Dallas, then
Dynasty and then Leander and Mahesh." All that happened was that
their sponsors cancelled the joint contracts, time went by, tennis carried
on, someone else became world No. 1 and someone else won the Grand Slams.
People stopped following the soap and other things came along-Hrithik
Roshan, match-fixing, another Miss Universe, whatever. So long guys and
thanks for the memories. You could have been great but you blew it.
Their return-for thematic equilibrium we'll
call it Bhupathi-Paes: the Sequel-has come about at the end of a sobering
and difficult 2000: injuries plagued both men, success was hard to come
by and the rancour of the past receded into a twinge of memory. Ten, even
five years down the line, what would they remember, what would warm their
hearts about 1999? The fact that they reached four Slam finals and won
two or the fact that were barely talking to one another? Hindsight grinds
out its lessons far too slowly but time and circumstance have showed Bhupathi
and Paes a couple of useful short cuts.
Australia's legendary doubles team of Todd Woodbridge
and Mark Woodforde believed that if anyone had it in them to take over
the mantle of a top quality doubles team, it was the Indian duo. If anyone
could bring colour and crowds and desperately-needed charisma to the two-man
game, it was Bhupathi and Paes. Can they still be that inspirational?
Do they want to be all that? The replies come down an international phoneline
even before the question is finished. "The place I'm looking to position
ourselves is No. 1. I don't take less than that. That's what I'm going
for," says Paes. His partner replies, "Of course. We'll definitely
be one of the dominant teams in the world, if not the dominant team."
There is no room for timidity in pro tennis and these two succeeded because
they were never timid, neither about their game nor themselves (why, at
the French Open, one commentator thought Bhupathi was "intimidating"
the opposition by yelling "YOU" at the top of his voice during
rallies. An Indian athlete who deliberately intimidates an opponent? Surely
there should be a national award for that alone).
These two racket-wielding, jet-setting, smooth-talking,
model-courting young men are India's face to international tennis, an
entity called "Boopatty-Pays". When they play with different
partners, nobody blinks. When they play together, they are still the doubles'
most charismatic team which draws out every Indian within a 100-mile radius
to the stands anywhere in the world. At the US Open in their big year-1999-the
International Herald Tribune front-paged their impact on the kind of crowds
that came to watch, comparing them to Tiger Woods and the changing face
of golf supportership. The world community of doubles players, who knows
that their game is more than singles multiplied by two, regards them as
their best posterboys, who, by sheer exuberant example, can leverage excitement
and attention and more importantly, television back into the two-man game.
After the French Open, they travelled separately
to London for the run-up to Wimbledon and will live in separate digs.
Theirs is a more measured association now, hopefully more stable and mature.
Tennis has waited for their coming of age and Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander
Paes know that it will give them no more chances.
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