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Paes, Bhupathi out of US Open

It had all the best elements of soap opera. And when the curtain came down at the end of it all, India's ace tennis pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had crashed out of the semifinal of the U S Open at the hands of the Sandon Stolle/Cyril Suk pair, the scoreline reading 3-6, 6-7(4).

This was the Paes-Bhupathi pairing's fourth semifinal appearance in the last five Grand Slams. And their fourth defeat, at that stage, to four different teams in course of the last 12 months.

It also meant that none of the top four seeded pairs will figure in the final of the event.

Early on in the match, played in the spectacular Arthur Ashe stadium, it had begun to rain, and on-court conditions were very very windy. Lobs which looked good would be carried by the wind just that extra inch that makes the difference, volleys would find, not the sweet spot of the racket but the sides, the server's toss would be taken by the wind and swung just that extra inch out of true...

There was an iffy air to the entire proceedings.

Nothing epitomised the chancy conditions as much as an incident in the second set, when Mahesh prepared to serve at 4-4 in the second set tie-breaker. His toss was caught by the wind, his serve was out of true, and he ended up double-faulting at the worst possible moment.

The conditions obviously told on the Indians. Leander and Mahesh had around 10 break points in the match, of which they managed to convert just one -- the usual aggression was there alright, but crucial shots kept going just that inch too long, or too low. And to their credit, the Stolle/Suk combine played within themselves, hanging in there, letting the other guys make all the mistakes.

Stolle/Suk dominated the net in the first set, causing problems for Leander in his service games. Leander was broken in the 4th game, for the Indians to trail 1-3. However, they broke back at once to tie 3-3. Leander promptly lost his serve again, the Indians trailing 3-5 and going on to lose the set 3-6 as the Stolle/Suk combine held serve.

In the second set there were two games where Leander and Mahesh looked on the verge of breaking through, but both opportunities went abegging. The second game of the set, in particular, was very long, with six deuces and four break points before Stolle finally held serve.

In the 12th game, Leander and Mahesh had triple break points and suddenly, everything went horribly wrong. A return from Mahesh went two inches wide, then Leander's volley bounced back off the net, and the tiebreak was on.

Mahesh started the tiebreak with a good serve. Then, down a minibreak at 2-3 facing serve, Leander came up with some terrific net play to get it back and the scores were tied at 3-3. It went to 4-4 with Mahesh serving one more, when the disastrous bad toss and double fault happened. And that, for all practical purposes, was that.

To give credit were due, Stolle and Suk were terrific. Realising that the Indians were not adapting to the conditions, the two quickly settled into a steady rhythm, not trying too hard, concentrating on keeping the ball in play and never letting the Indians have any easy points. It was calculating play at its best, and the win was well deserved.