Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

Mixed Doubles Final
(1) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)/ Jaroslav Levinsky (CZE) 75 63

Leander wins 2010 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Cara Black ... So with that Leander Paes equalled Indian record of maximum grandslam titles win by Mahesh Bhupathi, 11 each ... This was Leander's 5th mixed doubles title and 2nd with Cara Black, with whom he lifted 2008 US Open mixed doubles title.

In first set both pairs traded couple of breaks early but Lee and Cara take important break at 5-all breaking Makarova's serve and then Cara first time hold her serve in the match to won first set ... Second set started the way Lara and Cara wanted ... They broke Levinsky's serve in first game and take control of the match ... Then they never were under pressure on their own serve but kept pressure on Levinsky and Makarova's serve ... They again broke Levinsky's serve in 9th game to won match and championship.

In the final Lee played exceptional tennis ... He was as usual best near net in making volleys and quick hands ... He served well, didn't face single break point on his serve ... In the final he lost only 3 points on his serve.

Match summary
First set
Levinsky hold on luv
0-1 Lee hold on luv
1-1 Cara and Lee broke Makarova's serve on luv
2-1 Cara serve got broken on luv Poor serving from her with 1 DF
2-2 broke Levinsky's serve @30 with mis-hit from him ... Lee played couple of exceptional points near net
3-2 Lee hold @15
4-2 Makarova hold @15 ... Some big hitting from Makarova from back of the court
4-3 again Cara's serve broken @15 .. Makarova playing excellent returns
4-4 Levinsky hold @15 .. Lee is serving to remain in the first set
4-5 Lee hold @15 ... Important game as after that Cara will be serving
5-5 Lee and Cara responded breaking Makarova's serve @15 ... Cara need to hold her serve first time in the set to win it
6-5 and Cara hold on luv to captured first set ... Both cara and Lee played very good net game.
7-5

Second set
excellent start for second set ... Inspirational game from both to break Levinsky's serve on luv
1-0 consolidate the break with Lee holding his serve on luv with his usual quick hands near the net
2-0 Makarova hold after saving 2 break points
2-1 Cara hold @15 ... Lee was in usual best near the net
3-1 Levinsky hold @30
3-2 Lee hold @15
4-2 Makarova hold @30
4-3 Cara hold @15 ... Lee was lightening quick on the net, showing amazing quick hands near the net ... One game away from the title
5-3 broke Levinsky's serve after duece when Levinsky forehand shot went wide ... @40-30 Lee played amazing point to make it duece ... So Lee and Cara won Australian Open 2010 mixed doubles title.
6-3
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At $500K South Africa Tennis Open, Johannesburg

[Q1] (3) Prakash Amritraj (IND,202) bye
[Q1] Rohan Bopanna (IND,423) l Benjamin Janse Van Rensburg (RSA,1351) 36 57

[Q2] (3) Prakash Amritraj (IND,202) vs Roman Valent (SUI,534)

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,162) vs (6) Xavier Malisse (BEL,93)
[R1] (5) Rajeev Ram (USA,84) vs (WC) Rik De Voest (RSA,239)

Doubles
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ James Cerretani (USA) vs (WC) Ruan Roelofse (RSA)/ Nikala Scholtz (RSA)
[R1] (3) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Eric Butorac (USA) vs Philipp Marx (GER)/ Igor Zelenay (SVK)
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Yves Allegro (SUI)/ Marcc Chiudinelli (SUI)

By far this was poor result for Rohan ... May be we should rethink about our Davis Cup combination against Russia ... Somi having tough first round match.

In doubles, our all pairs r in bottom draw ... Prakash and his partner can meet Rajeev and Burtoc if they wins their respective first round matches.