Leander Paes is not one to give up without a fight. However, if the fight is against an unknown enemy, it's always twice as tough.
Leander Paes is not one to give up without a fight. However, if the fight is against an unknown enemy, it's always twice as tough. Yesterday, second seeds Paes and Sania Mirza, mixed doubles gold medallists at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, were shocked 5-7, 4-6 by Scotland's Colin Fleming and Jocelyn Rae in the quarter-finals.
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| Leander Paes and Sania Mirza |
Going into the CWG 2010 here, Paes had minced no words when he said that such Games have the potential of throwing up a host of unknown names, many of whom may not even be from the ATP and WTA Tours. "We know nothing about them, while they know way too much about us having seen us on the Tour year-round. It's always difficult to take on the unknown," Paes had said. Fleming and Rae were yesterday playing only in their second match together. It's no wonder then that the Scots themselves were shocked with what they had done. "This is one of the best nights of my career. Obviously, we haven't won a medal yet, but it's one of my proudest moments," said Fleming ranked 62nd in the ATP doubles ranking. "This may be only our second match together but we complemented each other well," said Rae, ranked 225 in the WTA doubles. Paes and Sania may have been tired having had to play their second match of the day (earlier Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi played a men's doubles match while Sania played a singles match) but took nothing away from their opponents. "It was a tough ask playing two matches in a day. But in professional tennis, you have to live up to these demands.
We need to give them credit. They played really well," Paes said.
The good news for Indian tennis however, is that Paes with Bhupathi and Somdev Devvarman with Rohan Bopanna made it to the men's double semi-finals, while Poojashree Venkatesha and Nirupama Sanjeev are in the women's semis and Sania and Somdev made it to the women's and men's singles semi-finals respectively.
Lee-Hesh beat Josh Godall and James Ward 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) while Somdev-Bopanna beat Matt Ebden and Greg Jones 7-6 (5), 6-4. Somdev downed Rubin Statham 6-3, 6-4 while Sania got the better of Maria Erakovic 6-2, 6-3. Poojashree and Nirupama shocked second seeds Sarah Borwell and Anna Smith 7-5, 6-4.
