"To play after three days you have to stay in rhythm, luckily we had everything going for us," said Leander Paes after heand Mahesh Bhupathi had scored an authoritative 6-4, 7-6 (3) win over Philipp Marx (Germany) and Ken Skupski (Great Britain) yesterday, to move into the doubles semifinals of the Chennai Open at the Nungambakkam Stadium.


India's Mahesh Bhupathi (left) and Leander Paes during their Chennai
Open quarter-final match against Germany's Philipp Marx and England's
Ken Skupski yesterday. The Indians won 6-4, 7-6. PIC/AFP India's
Mahesh Bhupathi (left) and Leander Paes during their Chennai Open
quarter-final match against Germany's Philipp Marx and England's Ken
Skupski yesterday. The Indians won 6-4, 7-6. Pic/AFP

Paes came down with a fever after their opening round win on Monday. "On Tuesday, there was no way I could play. But then Irecovered and I think we played an excellent match," stressed Paes.
When asked whether it was difficult to play after a three-day break Paes said: "Andre Agassi used to play one day, then take a plane and go somewhere and come back and play after two days and he never had any problems."

As far as match tactics goes, Bhupathi explained: "they are both dangerous players (Marx and Skupski) with big serves. We targeted Marx as he had the weaker return and we went hard at him when we volleyed."
In the past, Paes and Bhupathi have often had a tempestuous relationship and the pair was uneasy when queried about it. And of course they deflected the volleys adroitly. "It will be romantic if we win the
Australian Open," said Bhupathi wryly.

The year 2011 will see plenty of new pairings on the doubles circuit. "There are some exciting new pairs who will be dangerous as the season progresses but we have an advantage as we have played a lot together. I think this will work in our favour," noted Paes.

The talk in tennis circles is that this is just a stop gap arrangement and the pair may part ways once again after the Australian Open. "Let's slow it down and take it one day at a time. In the past everything went so fast and that led to a lot of confusion," said Paes. Paes and Bhupathi run into Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig of Croatia in the last four on Saturday.