Paes sets up all-Indian semis in men's tennis championship<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Top seeded Leander Paes survived a thrilling
\nthree-setter against struggling South Korean Kim Bong-soo 6-7 (2-
\n7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) yesterday to set up an Indian civil war
\nagainst Mahesh Bhupathi in the semifinals of the Indonesia Men's
\nChallenger tennis championships.<\/p>\n
Tenacious Bhupathi was also forced to play a stretched set
\nbefore taming Marian Vajda of Slovakia 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 for a place
\nin today's semifinals of the US$50,000 tournament.<\/p>\n
The other semifinal today will pit Croatian Igor Saric, the 6-
\n4, 6-3 winner over Indonesia's Benny Wijaya, against second seed
\nOscar Ortiz of Mexico who dumped Ari Nathan of the U.S. out of
\nthe championships with a 6-4, 6-3 win yesterday.<\/p>\n
Former Wimbledon and the U.S. Open junior champion Paes looked
\nout of form and needed a second wind to overcome the never-say-
\ndie, 32-year-old South Korean in more than three hours of play.<\/p>\n
Paes had Kim running, but tallied too many errors which cost
\nhim a first set deficit. Smarting from the first set down, Paes
\ndrilled his forehands to the left of his 11-year older rival on
\nhis way to forcing the decider.<\/p>\n
Paes kept on the pressure in the last rubber which was marred
\nwith three bad calls, firing his powerful groundstrokes from the
\nbaseline. Kim answered with his well-aimed backhand slices which
\nseveral times left Paes running awkwardly. The hard-fought but
\nerror-prone battle had to end in a tie-breaker after both players
\ndenied broken services twice apiece.<\/p>\n
Desperate Kim ran out of steam in the tie-break, hitting every
\nreturn into the net which allow Paes to race to a 4-0 lead. The
\nSouth Korean went on tallying errors to earn Paes the semifinal
\nberth.<\/p>\n
\"He's more powerful than I,\" Kim admitted after the match.<\/p>\n
Paes, who received special congratulations from a little boy,
\nIrfan, after the match, said he was as tired as his opponent and
\nhe had to labor to win the match. Paes did not take a break after
\nhis Asian Games campaign in Hiroshima.<\/p>\n
\"But there will be a clean match tomorrow. We will give our
\nbest,\" Paes said of his game with compatriot Bhupathi. The Indian
\npair also made it through the final in the doubles event.<\/p>\n
Doubles<\/p>\n
Paes and Bhupathi blasted their giant-killing way to ousting
\nsecond seeded pair of Ortiz and Nathan straight sets 6-4, 6-4 and
\nare now waiting for the winners of the other semifinal which pits
\ntop seeds Austrian Andrew Kratzmann and German Martin Zumpft
\nagainst British third seed doubles of Andrew Foster and Danny
\nSapsforo.<\/p>\n
Indonesian number one Benny was another one to fall victim to
\nthe tiring Asian Games competition, his luck proving not as good
\nas Paes'. Benny lost his grip in his easy defeat to Saric in
\nabout an hour of play.<\/p>\n
\"I was so exhausted that I could not play as I had planned,\"
\nsaid Paes' fellow Asian Games bronze medalist Benny. The fourth
\nseed underwent his busiest program in the past month. He led the
\nnational team in the Davis Cup tie against Switzerland just a
\nweek before leaving for Hiroshima. (amd)<\/p>",
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