The INDIAN EXPRESS ... (Will They Ever Roll Again?)

[jayakris]

Etlis has been a bit of a bad omen for Leander over the years. He is 1-4 against Etlis .. 0-1 in singles (loss at Chennai 1997), 1-2 in doubles, and 0-1 in mixed doubles .. Not too many people have a 3-1 doubles record against Leander.

A straight set loss to the same Etlis-Rodriguez at Cincinnati was the last match before the brain cyst layoff for LP last year .. The next match was supposed to be in MB's company at Long Island when he was hospitalized with a suspected cancer scare - this thread started a couple of days before that, if you remember.

Etlis-Rodriguez upset LP-Rikl in straight sets at the 2003 AO quarterfinals and Etlis-Suarez beat LP-Oremans in the AO MxD R2 in 2002 .. LP's only win against Etlis was at the Paris Masters in 2002 with Michael Hill (opver Etlis-Arnold) ..

There is more .. Gaston Etlis was the last player that Mahesh Bhupathi beat in a challenger .. 36 60 75 at Delhi in a semi in 1999 .. MB's next match was a 57 46 finals loss against, who else, Leander Paes! .. Interestingly the week after, if I remember correctly, the Indian Express newspaper carried an item where they quoted or misquoted Leander to be saying something about MB's fitness .. That was the first indication of something not being right between them.

MB's record against Etlis in doubles is 2-2 .. MB-Mirnyi lost to Etlis/ Rodriguez at Monte Carlos this april, and at the Houston WDC last november .. MB-MM beat them at Wimbledon last year, and they also had a win on Etlis-Arnold at Rome in 2002.

Bottom line .. LP and MB are combined 1-4 against Etlis-Rodriguez as a pair, and Etlis generally seemed to be around whenever bad things happened. Suffiecs to say that I would rather have not faced this team first.

But that is all old story .. The Indian Express have never played Etlis-Rodriguez. Count in a win tomorrow, folks!

I will post a time for a good old style chat session, as soon as the schedule comes out for tomorrow. GO INDIAN EXPRESS.

Jay

[PKBasu]

Yeah, that name Etlis sets off all sorts of alarm bells in our heads. Probably the most frustrating was that loss in R1 at Chennai, when LP arrived hours before the match from Florida and got shellacked in his jetlagged state (how can you give up the home court advantage with such bad travel planning -- and irritating scheduling by the horrid organisers?). I hope Leander uses the history (which I'm sure he is just as aware of as we are!) to administer a clinical lesson in doubles play tonight in the company of Mahesh...

[PKBasu]

The name Gaston appears to be unusually popular in Argentina. We have both Etlis and Gaudio sharing that first name, for instance. (Outside tennis circles, I've only heard it in fairy tales of French provenance...).

[gvhvhg]

i ma currently in india and the sad thing is that i have heard NOTHING about this reunion thus far in the papers on on tv...mabye after they win a match it will b mentioned buit u would think this would be a big story.....

[jayakris]

There is a PTI item today:

http://us.rediff.com/sports/2004/jul/29bhup.htm

But then, they had to go put in a mischief piece (inadvertant perhaps) - "Bhupathi, on whose top 10 ranking the pair gained a direct entry to the Athens Games.." .... Of course, that is wrong. Didn't need Hesh's top-10 rank for entry. If he had a rank around LP's #29, they would have still made entry easily. Hesh's ranking may help in a good seeding, though their reputation as a team would probably still be a bigger factor in a good seeding if they get it.

Jay

[jayakris]

EXpected time for today's chat session is 4 pm Toronto (1 pm LA, 9 pm London .. 1.30 am India)

Come to http://www.sports-india.com/chat/flashchat.php

Go Indian Express!

Jay

[Dhruv]

[R2] (8) M.Bhupathi/ L.Paes d. Gaston Etlis (ARG)/ Martin Rodriguez (ARG) 63 62

[jayakris]

.. and they played every bit like the Indian Express of old (or better), from what he could see in the way the match progressed. Back to back service game went to 0-40 in the first set and both the guys served their way out with 5 points in a row each time .. Saved 7 break points in the first set and then went on a tear .. The world #9 team did not know what hit them, and they were down 3-6 0-4 !! Seeya!!

Jay

[jayakris]

.. and a palpable sense of nervousness decended into the locker room at Toronto .. Sweat was visible on the faces of many of the Athens medals hopefuls among doubles players there .. The talk was all in hush-hush tones .. "You mean .. those two guys?" .. "really?" .. "but, but .. aren't they like .. not liking each other?" .. "they won 3 and 2 in their first match back?" .. "damn it!" ..

Some were seen huddled together ..

Some players were seen running to the travel agent asking if it was too late to cancel the Olympia airlines tickets ..

A couple of guys said they were suddenly developing a fear of express trains and wanted to book a bus from Paris to Athens with a quick return trip too ..

One opened a bottle of whiskey and said "Hey Bob, have a sip, we are toast anyway", to which his pal Mike said, "yeah bro, pour one for me too" ..

Somewhere, a guy sat alone muttering to himself, "if only I had my old mate Mark with me ... I should have quit before all this .."

Jay

PS: Just kidding ...

[jayakris]

Blasck-Ullyett lost to Haggard-Perry 67 26 at Toronto today .. That is good news ..

Erlich-Ram upset Damm-Suk 46 63 64 .. That is good news too.

Jay

[BSharma]

Three cheers for the Indian Express, and hope I get to say that many times the rest of the year.

[PKBasu]

WOW!! We need never have feared anything! They knew they only needed 2 tournaments to tune up -- and how they have shown the doubters (me included) just what they are about. Well done Indian Express!
This little tour will show you just why it makes 100% sense for you to devote the rest of your careers to playing together as a PAIR! There is history to be made in Athens (we know you will make it), but there is also history to be made at the Slams -- and you've got to make some more of it, TOGETHER.

[jayakris]

If anybody is interested in seeing a picture commentary of the Indian Express' last grand slam title, here is the page I made then (somebody reminded me of this page today, so I thought I would post a link) .. That was my attempt at a bit of humor too ...

http://www.its.uci.edu/~jaykay/lpmbpics ... -pics.html

Jay

[amr090]

lets hope for a few more successful matches so they go in high and ready to peak for the olympics....we can only hope success in the next few wks will make them decide to play with each other on a regular basis once again.

[PKBasu]

There is a possibility that our heroes could be playing their QF match at around 2:30pm today. But first, their opponents need to be determined -- after playing the first match on the Stadium court this morning:
Stadium start 10:30 AM
(1)Bryan/Bryan vs Palmer/Vizner
Not before 1:00 PM
(1)R Federer (SUI) vs F Santoro (FRA)
Not before 2:30 PM
(7)(LL)T Johansson (SWE) vs J Johansson (SWE) or
(LL)C Saulnier (FRA)

The schedule for the Grandstand Court reads as follows:

Grandstand start 11:00 AM
Knowle/Zimonjic vs (2)Bjorkman/Mirnyi
Not before 1:00 PM
(4)Knowles/Nestor vs Erlich/Ram

TBA1 start not before 2:30 PM
(1)Bryan/Bryan or Palmer/Vizner vs (8)Bhupathi/Paes
Not before 2:30 PM
Haggard/Perry vs Knowle/Zimonjic or (2)Bjorkman/Mirnyi
Not before 3:30 PM
Gonzalez/Massu vs (3)Llodra/Santoro
Grosjean/Hrbaty vs Gonzalez/Massu or (3)Llodra/Santoro

Haggard/Perry is a bit of a surprise element. Bjorkman/Mirnyi is an interesting one (at least better-matched than Bjorkman/Bhupathi in terms of which side of the court they prefer to play on).