India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will be on the opposite sides of the net for the first time since the Olympic selection fiasco, as the doubles specialists entered the final of the Shanghai Masters on Saturday with their respective partners.
Seventh seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna reached their second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final of the season and set up a summit clash with Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek here.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi
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The Indian duo beat the British pairing of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins 6-7(4), 6-3, 10-8. Both teams fired nine aces, but the Indian pairing faced no break points and were able to convert one of their six opportunities to claim victory in one hour and 36 minutes, the ATP website reported.
In the final, Bhupathi and Bopanna will face fourth seeds Paes and Stepanek, who converted six of their seven break points as they dismissed Marin Cilic and Marcelo Melo 6-0,u00a06-2 in 57 minutes.
Earlier this year, Bhupathi had refused to partner India’s highest ranked player Paes in the men’s doubles event at the London Games citing the fact that he and Bopanna were already a partnership.
Paes eventually went on to play the Games with rookie Vishnu Vardhan, while Bhupathi and Bopanna formed India’s second doubles team. Both teams eventually finished nowhere close to the medals in London.
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