Lee-Hesh demolish SA pair

bangalore: it was glitz, glamour and some great tennis to boot at the kingfisher kslta stadium in cubbon park on the opening day of the atp world doubles challenge cup on tuesday. the presence of the chief minister in the company of navjot singh sidhu, viewing leander paes and mahesh bhupathi hurriedly demolish the south african pair of john laffnie de jager and robbie koenig, had many a cameraman in a dilemma as to where the priority lay. fuelling the carnival atmosphere was vijay amritraj, who was seen hitting tennis balls into the stands prior to the commencement of this match. if leander and mahesh had the partisan home crowd on their feet applauding every move of theirs in their 6-2, 6-3 triumph, then it was not solely due to the brand of tennis on display. the match that stole the hearts of the cognoscenti was undoubtedly that between the czech pair of petr pala and pavel vizner, and mark knowles and brian mcphie. it had all the ingredients that merge to produce a thriller — aces, deuces, drop shots, net chords and disputed calls to name a few.knowles and mcphie started with a bang, steamrolling the czechs 6-1 in the opening set, aided by a couple of service breaks. if one were to take that as an indication of what to expect in the next few games then he would be gravely mistaken. for what was to follow was utterly contradictory to the one-sided first set. the first three games went with service but it was the fourth game, with knowles serving, which witnessed an incredibly high standard of tennis. a visibly tired knowles doublefaulted at 40-30 to allow the czechs a glimmer of hope. their followed two deuces. in the first, the czechs held the advantage which they squandered while in the next, their rivals returned the compliment. pala however grabbed the opportunity in the third deuce of the point, sending a doublehanded backhand down the line to gain the advantage. perhaps, unable to take the pressure any longer, knowles simply caved in at that break point and double-faulted. bolstered by that break of service — their first in the match thus far, the czech pair raced to a 5-1 lead when they broke mcphie's service in the sixth game. not to be outdone, the australian open doubles title holder, mark knowles, produced a marvellous forehand crosscourt return in the second point of the next game with pala serving, and along with an inspired mcphie, went on to break back. knowles then held his service quite easily and the score stood at 5-3 in favour of the czechs. the ninth game of this second set can perhaps be termed as the 'game of the day' for it produced a string of incredible rallies at the net with both pairs going flat out. on the third deuce, with vizner serving, pala hit a brilliant winner after an astonishing rally. vizner finally sealed the set at 6-3 with a cracker of a serve. the third set was a see saw affair which could have gone either way. pala and vizner broke knowles in the third game to go 2-1 up. unable to hold on to the advantage, they allowed knowles and mcphie to break back in the very next game. it was evident that pala's nerves were on edge and he was having a tough time controlling his emotions. in fact, he can consider himself a trifle fortunate for not being warned. thereafter, games went with service till the score stood 6-5 in favour of knowles and mcphie. under normal circumstances, the 6'4'' pala may have held his serve but his temper got the better of him and he handed the set and match on a platter to his rivals when he handed them three match points. knowles and mcphie wrapped up the set and match at 7-5 after 1 hour 59 minutes of gruelling tennis. the opening match of the day between the bryan twins and the pair of rick leach and ellis ferreira saw the cannonball serve of the twins pitted against the experience of the latter pair. ultimately the service held it's own and bob and mike bryan came up trumps 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. in the post-match press conference, leach paid tribute to the youngsters when he said that he had never before faced two servers as vicious as them in any one match. top seeds stretched a scintillating performance by the underdogs, chris haggard and van houdt, saw the top seeds, donald johnson and jared palmer, stretched to three sets {6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-3), 6-3}.