Thaindian News

Montreal, Aug 17 (IANS) India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles claimed their first title at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament and the fourth together, defeating Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Israeli Andy Ram in straight sets in the $3 million Rogers Cup final.
Bhupathi and Knowles, seeded third, won 6-4, 6-3, against the seventh seeds Sunday.

This is the Indian’s fifth Canadian doubles title, four in Montreal and one in Toronto, while for Knowles the second after the first on his debut here with American Jim Courier 16 years ago, though the 37-year-old doubles exponent was runner-up in 1996 and 2002 along with his successful long-time Canadian partner Daniel Nestor.

Bhupathi and Kniowles now have a a 4-6 Tour record in doubles finals, Rogers Cup being their first title since they won at Basel in October after coming together last year. The duo will now split the winners cheque of $175,000 while the runners up will get $76,000.

An elated Bhupathi quipped: “I was joking with my coach that now I should probably buy a flat here since it is my fifth title in Canada.”

Knowles added his bit, saying: “This is a very special tournament for me because this is where I won my first ATP title with Jim Courier in 1993 — just a couple of years ago!”

The Indo-Bahamian pair served so well that they didn’t face a single break point in the 62-minute match. Mirnyi and Ram could just take nine points on their opponents’ serve and that explains the stranglehold the winners had.

Mirnyi and Ram should still be happy to have come through a tough week, beating the world’s top pair Bob and Mike Bryan in the semi-final. Playing in their first last four round in more than four months they gathered crucial ranking points in the race to end the year in the top-eight and qualify for the season ending World Tour Finals in London.