Having lost to the Bryan brothers 6-2, 5-7, 0-6 in the men's doubles final here less than 24 hours earlier, Mahesh Bhupathi will go all out with partner Sania Mirza in Sunday's mixed doubles final, where they take on France's Nathalie Dechy and Israel's Andy Ram
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Two hot: Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi during their Australian Open mixed doubles semi-final against Iveta Benesova and Lukas Dlouhy recently. Mirza and Bhupathi won 6-4, 6-1 |
Having lost to the Bryan brothers 6-2, 5-7, 0-6 in the men's doubles final here less than 24 hours earlier, Mahesh Bhupathi will go all out with partner Sania Mirza in Sunday's mixed doubles final, where they take on France's Nathalie Dechy and Israel's Andy Ram.
Bhupathi has a number of reasons to be aggressive here. One, he last won a Grand Slam title in 2002, teaming up with Max Mirnyi to lift the US Open. Secondly, despite 11 attempts so far at Melbourne Park, the Australian Open trophy is the only one missing from his collection, having won the French Open (1999) and Wimbledon (2001) men's doubles titles with Leander Paes. Thirdly, Bhupathi along with Martina Hingis saw the Australian Open mixed doubles title slip out of their hands when they lost in the 2006 final to seasoned campaigners Elena Likhovtseva and Daniel Nestor.
This time the Indians face an unseeded pair, so Bhupathi will fancy his chances.
Though the Bhupathi-Mirza pairing is relatively new two years to be precise they have made a lot of effort to spend time together in a bid to get the on-court camaraderie going. "We did our pre-season training season together in December with a group of players in India in Bangalore this year. We train together in the off-season for the last two years," Bhupathi said at a recent press conference in Melbourne.
Also, the fact that the duo are no strangers to each other, has helped. "We've known each other a long time," he added.
Sania, too admits that the 'Indian' factor gets them going. "We know each other well. We're great friends and we're Indian. So, I guess there are enough similarities," she said.u00a0
Add to this, the fact that Sania is thirsting for her first ever Grand Slam victory and the Indian pair might just end up making this Sunday a fun day for Indian tennis fans.
