Mahesh Bhupathi thread...

[Florian Buechting]

Hi my dear friends,
I just got back from Mahesh's birthday party match in Halle. Here is my report:

Bhupathi/Woodbridge bt. J.Knowle/J.Melzer (AUT) 63 64

It was quite cold and windy in Halle, some sort of New Zealand Davis Cup experience *smile*. Of course, I was quite confident against the Austrian pairing - surely no bad doubles team, but no world class one, too. And it was Hesh's B'day - so how could the God of Doubles Tennis give Hesh a loss today? Apart from me, there was also Chris from indianfootball.com and a friend of him on court.

Our guys won the toss and elected to serve. Toddie had no major problems, though they lost two points. Everything looked like a great start, at JM's serve, the score was 0-30, but the Austrians scored four in a row - 1:1. Next to serve: Hesh. Our confidence got lost quite much: 15-40 - but Hesh and Todd came back and deuced the score. Nevertheless, they had to save three more break points - Hesh really struggled with his first serve. But after a long fight, they made it. 2:1 for us - a very important court change break to recover now. Julian Knowle was to serve for the first time - and the score was 15-40 again after some nice points by MBTW. First break point taken, 3:1 lead, everything looked much better now again. Todd struggled a bit with his serve, but though the score was deuce, there were no problems for us to take the 4:1 lead. No problems for Melzer to go for the 4:2 as well as for Hesh to raise the lead to 5:2 afterwards - and though Hesh and Todd could get back to a 40-30 score after a 40-0 lead, Julian Knowle had no major problems to score the 5:3. Todd scored for the set - and made a great job. Straight game, first set 6:3.

Second set seemed to start well. At Melzer's serve, our guys lead 0-30, but thogh there was hardly any correct first serve, the Austrians got the deuce. Two break points, both at Ad Returner for us - a definite must have-chance. But at the end, Hesh made two unforced volley errors and gave the Austrians the opportunity to escape. They did - 1:0 JKJM. Todd's serve was no problem again, the only opposite point was committed by a double fault. But the Austrians got in major trouble now. 30-40, Knowle to serve, break point MBTW. The first bp was saved, but another one followed - and this time, our guys said "Yes!". Break, 2:1 lead with Hesh to serve. Nothing speciial about this , no problems to hold the serve. Two straight serve games by Melzer and Toddie afterward, so the score was 4:2 for us whith Knowle to serve. Hesh and Toddie must have decided it now: 0-40, triple break point! But somehow, the Austrians scored three in a row and even saved another break point, before they won the seventh game themselves. Hesh looked a bit nervous now and gave the Austrians a break point at Ad Returner after he committed two double faults in his game. But at the end, he and Todd were just too strong - 5:3. At Melzer to serve, we even had double match point, but again, the Austrians kept their serve. I already took out the birthday cake, but it looked like serious trouble again: double fault Toddie, 0-30. But Todd's serve was just too good today, time for four in a row and the birthday cake for Hesh.

I have to admit that Todd and Hesh did not look that good, but at least they did everything they needed to win against nervous-acting Austrians without major problems. Maybe they need some more matches to get used to lawn tennis. Hesh did not look very pleased after the match, too.


Their next opponent will be decided (quite likely) tomorrow when Kiefer/Waske(GER) will face Lopez/Nadal(ESP), so that very likely, Hesh and Todd will play on Thursday next time. I hope to be there again then, I am not sure about the money I need for it so far... Though Hesh just did not know what to say about the cake and the birthday card with our wishes, I met him some hours after the match, he thanked me for that - so I will give these thanks to all of you!

Hope I will be physically able to post the pictures later, I am very, very tired at the moment... Of course, I will tell you when they are online...

Yours,
Florian

Added comment: Btw: Nenad just beat Kiefer 67(1) 63 64, good performance by Lee's partner

[Florian Buechting]

Just a small note before I will fall into beautiful Indian tennis dreams: the today's pictures are online. Like every time, you find them at

www.sport-live.net / www.tennis-foto.de


Yours,
Florian

[gvhvhg]

Great work as always Florian! I like Mahesh's shirt!

[Sandeep]

reat photos and report Florian.

[BSharma]

Thanks Florian.

[jaydeep]

Thanks Florian amazing work ... Very neat and nice reporting man ... Nice to see Hesh and Todd in stright sets.

Jaydeep.

[insideout]

Great fotos and report as usual .......

Thanks Florian

[Florian Buechting]

Hi my dear friends,
very strange things going on in Halle tomorrow. Hesh will NOT play! They play four round of 16 singles matches on center court and Nenad's first round doubles match on court 1 - that's all! So they will have to play all quarterfinals - singles and doubles - on Friday. Five matches tomorrow, eight on Friday, this looks completely stupid to me.

I am not sure whether I will be able to go there on Friday - especially as Braunschweig challenger starts on Saturday added to another photography event, looks like just too much traveling around for me - I am sorry.... Maybe I will try to go to Halle on Friday, but it depends very much on the schedule and which game will be scheduled at which time on which court.

Hesh's and Toddie's opponents will be Kiefer/Waske by the way who got a first round walkover.

Yours,
Florian

[Florian Buechting]

Strange things keep going on in Halle doubles: Two teams are already in the semis, as their opponents gave them a walkover: Federer/Allegro "beat" Canas and Nalbandian, who got two court abuse game penalties in his first round match in singles against Schüttler, Santoro, who had to retire in his singles match, seems to be injured: Novak/Pala got a walkover from him and Llordra.

So there will be quite likely two doubles matches tomorrow: Hesh and Toddie face Kiefer/Waske, the winner of Nenad/Haas-Suk/Vizner faces Safin/Johansson. Apart from that, there will be the singles quarterfinals.

I decided not to go to Offenbach today, I am sorry. Just to much work, too few money at the moment to see our young guns... Maybe I will go to Hesh's match tomorrow, depends on the schedule...

Yours,
Florian

[jayakris]

Don't feel too bad, Florian.. We know you would cover Offenbach if you could find any way to do it .. Don't stress yourself out! .. Hope the schedule fits for MB's doubles QF ..

Jay

[Florian Buechting]

Oh man, I was looking that forward to see Hesh play tomorrow, but Halle is really getting mad now! Hesh will not play tomorrow!.

At the schedule presented on their webpage, Hesh is not scheduled with his quarterfinal. I just cannot understand this crap! At least there is no more walkover in the doubles shown on the website so far, so they force Hesh and Toddie in case they manage to reach the final to play twice on one day - either Saturday or Sunday - without any reason. Kiefer and Waske are both out of the singles tournament, so there is no need to give them a rest or so. Kiefer/Waske or Hesh/Toodie will quite likely have a double header on Saturday now. Unfortunately, they do not present the number of the tournament office on their website, I would have loved to call them to ask them for the reason for that. Maybe doubles players should be allowed to play two tournaments parallely - with this schedule, Hesh could have been easily able to play Queens, too

If I knew that, I would have been able to go to Offenbach today. Double time bad luck

I won't definitely be able to go to Halle on Saturday or Sunday, I am very sorry about that.... I am very confused about whats going on there now...

Yours,
Florian

[jayakris]

Florian, Hesh/Todd also got a walkover in the QF from Kiefer/Waske. That explains why he is not playing tomorrow. He will simply play the SF on saturday.

This is turning into such a joke. Three of the four SF teams have got QF walkovers.

Kiefer-Waske wasted a wildcard in the draw and got a walkover from Nadal-Lopez. Then they turned around and gave a walkover .. In other words Kiefer-Waske took in some doubles money without ever stepping on. Canas-Nalbandian gave a w/o to Allegro-Federer in the QF and so Hesh-Todd will play Allegro-Federer.

Jay

[Florian Buechting]

Florian, Hesh/Todd also got a walkover in the QF from Kiefer/Waske. That explains why he is not playing tomorrow. He will simply play the SF on saturday.

I just saw it on the ATP site - the tournament site is not showing the walkover. This is simply ridiculous and completely against all kinds of sportsmenlike behavior. Nadal and Santoro really seemed to be injured, but Nalbandian left there because he behaved very bad and is now acting like a little kid whose teddy bear was taken away. Kiefer and Waske? No idea, they both looked quite good in shape...

The ATP should make a rule that if you withdraw from a running tournament and it is no short-term injury, you are banned for the next week. Especially in doubles tennis, these things just happen too often.

[Chris_indianfootball.com]

The tournament schedule is more than confusing... I will try to get some infos on this stuff tomorrow directly from the press office.

Let's see, if I can get a statement on this from Hesh. I'm set to interview him for IndianFootball.Com and theInder.net tomorrow or Saturday.

Btw. I've uploaded some pictures of the Round 1 match. You can have a look at them on www.chrispd.de

More to follow in the upcoming days.

Regards,
Chris

[jayakris]

Nice pictures at your site, Chris. You do look suave in those full 3-piece suits .. What can I say, malayalees just have that "look", eh? ... We can't help it ..

Jay