Its great to see so much following for a relatively lesser known tournament. I was fortunate enough to be at the stadium along with my wife, cheering Leander Paes and Thomas Damm. So I thought I'd give my first hand experience to all those who might be interested. For the record, official score was 6-2,6-7(7-5),12-10. Prize money is $5mn plus. The women's semi-final in the main stadium went on for more than 2 hours and hence they had to move the Paes-Damm men's doubles semi-final to a smaller court in Stadium 3. It was scorching hot at Indian Wells with temperatures soaring to 100F.
Paes-Damm took the first set easily helped by the unforced errors of their top-seeded opponents. Second set was tougher and the score went to 6 games each. Paes-Damm should have won 7-2 but with their mistakes lost the tie-breaker 7-5. There was no third set but another tie-break for 10 points. So the third 'set' was won 11-9 by Paes-Damm.
I was surprised that an ATP tournament had such rules where a proper third set was replaced by a 10 point tie-break - that too at the semi-final level. Anyway the best part was to see Leander win. We cheered him all along (having taken pictures with him during his practice session). Surprisingly lot of Americans also supported Paes-Damm - thoroughly enjoying the trademark chest bumps (yes.. he continues doing it even after his break-up with Bhupathi).
Overall we had great fun. Wish we had more sports heroes from Mera Bharat Mahaan !!
RE:First hand info :-)
by sunilkumar mishra on Mar 18, 2007 02:17 PM
Congrats for enjooying the match and chheering Paes and Damn. All Indians r now preoccupied with cricket loss to B'desh but if a few indivduals have done the country proud with their talents, skill and dedication, they r Leander, Bhupathi, Vishy Anand and not these bunch of cricket demiGods. All the best to Paes for the finals. sukalp HYD
RE:First hand info :-)
by ShreeRam Somani on Mar 18, 2007 07:02 PM
Gosh.. they should sack the reporte and use you instead. I get more info and clear info from what you have written than the supposedly reporter. MR/MS EDITOR are you reading this?????
This article has two typos in my opinion. The set score of winner can not be 6-2, 6-7, it should be 6-2, 7-6. The second one is about the USD 3,169,000 million dollars. Dude, isn't that figure more than GDP of many countries??
RE:Bad typing errors!
by arvind yadav on Mar 17, 2007 07:57 PM
Read News again honey!!! The fifth seeded Indo-Czech duo beat the top seeded Swede-Belarussian pair 6-2, 6-7(5), 12-10 in the semi-finals of the US $3,169,600 event on Friday.
keep it up paes!!!!!! we're prud of you.. with people like you around atleast we're assured of winning tournaments unlike in cricket where our team is largely unpredictable.
RE:Keep it Up
by M.A.VENUGOPAL panicker on Mar 17, 2007 05:28 PM
WE are all proud of Leander Paes. He is a shining example for the youth of our nation.
RE:Leander
by chandra singh on Mar 17, 2007 04:09 PM
Definetly yes, But he need to discover and then polish the next generation to make the coming lot as competitive as he is. Kyu?
RE:RE:Leander
by Rogerbinny on Mar 17, 2007 05:47 PM
Abhe chandru ke baache, what is Leander Paes a scientist to discover generations or do you want him to clone another Paes. Be happy with his achievements and be proud of him, he is probably the best shining star in the dark nights of indian sports. People who dont do anything rule the tennis administartion, how can you ask Leander do more, enough he has done for india
Looking at the quantum of messages that have poured into rediff.com website (as far as cricket is concerned), this just shows how much amount of fan-following is being attributed to lawn tennis. Congrats to the duo of Paes-Damm. Keep up the good work.
RE:great
by chandra singh on Mar 17, 2007 04:11 PM
You are gight, but the thing is, till they are seperated the chances of winning titles is double by the Indian participant. And It they play togather then it will be "Sone pey Suhaga". Kyu?
Paes and Martin Dam in the final is great.The top seeds Max Mirni and Jonas Bjorkman are becomming more agressive lately after winning a couple of tournaments and they were too confident of winning everytime big tournaments.This is their downfall,especially Max Mirni the arrogant giant thinks he is demi god and gives his other past partners a very contemptious and cocky look whenever he plays them.Jonas Bjorkman is th silent one with a killer instinct and he did very well for himself at the singles tour becomming a constant doubles partners.I see a gentleman and a rogue who play together for the sake of winning.Wish Max Mirnyi will alter his behaiour and lean to respect other players.Does he know how to smile genuinely?He can learn a lot from his doubles partner who is a real gentleman.Can Leander and Martin win it this time,yes they will and will win many more tournaments and grand slams.Congrats Leander and Martin.
