Top seeds and home favourites Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes enjoyed the perfect reunion in the first week of the 2011 ATP World Tour season as they won the Aircel Chennai Open title for the fifth time with a 6-2, 6-7(3), 10-7 victory over Robin Haase and David Martin on Sunday. The Indian duo won their 24th tour-level title together and their first since triumphing at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto in 2004. Later this month they will attempt to win their fourth Grand Slam title together with victory at the Australian Open.
Two breaks of serve in the second and eighth games sufficed to secure the opening set for Bhupathi and Paes, but they were pegged back in the second set as Haase and Martin won the tie-break to level the match. Bhupathi and Paes looked in trouble as they trailed 1-4 in the Match Tie-break, but held their nerve to win seven of the next eight points before going onto clinch victory in one hour and 45 minutes.
“I really can’t describe it,” said Bhupathi. “It’s an amazing court to play on; we’ve won here five times. It feels great. We played really high quality today. They threw everything at us after the first set and the Match Tie-break was a very, very high standard.”
Paes added, “We were down 1-4 in the Match Tie-break to two guys who have played unbelievable tennis all week. It was incredible to turn it around. It’s been seven years since we’ve played a tournament together - not a bad way to start again! It’s another great victory at home for us.”
Bhupathi and Paes also won the Chennai trophy in 1997-99 and 2002. Victory for the 36-year-old Bhupathi earned him his 47th tour-level title and took him to 599 match wins, while the 37-year-old Paes won his 45th tour-level title in his 77th final.
First-time pairing Haase and Martin had ousted second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in the quarter-finals to reach their first ATP World Tour final together. The 23-year-old Haase was bidding for his first ATP World Tour doubles title in his second final, while the 29-year-old Martin dropped to a 1-5 mark in finals.
