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Home  » Sports » One down, three to go: Paes

One down, three to go: Paes

Source: PTI
August 16, 2004 19:13 IST
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After going past a potential landmine of a hurdle in Americans Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish in the first round of the men's doubles in tennis, Leander Paes said his partner Mahesh

Bhupathi and he are not looking far beyond the next outing and taking one match at a time.

"We are just taking one match at a time," Paes said after the 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 first round win over Roddick and Fish on Monday.

The fifth seeded Indians faced a tricky opening match against a team that had in Roddick one of the biggest servers of the game, although the American has little experience in doubles.

Paes said their focus was to hold serve and hope for mistakes from the rivals.

"Our strategy was to hold serve and hope for one or two errors from them. The conditions here were very difficult with gusty winds blowing.

"Roddick is a very good singles player but we are doubles specialists and know each other like the back of our hands.

"Now it is one down and three to go," the multiple Grand Slam champion said.

Paes, curiously, did not talk about winning the gold but seemed to have set his eyes on the minimum, the bronze.

"I have won the singles bronze (in Atlanta in 1996). Now I want to win the doubles bronze," he said.

The duo face another tough match in the second round against Switzerland's Roger Federer and Yves Allegro. Paes said he does not expect any easy match at the highest level.

"We played the number two (singles) player today. And we next play the world number one (Federer). Matches at this level are always going to be difficult," he said.

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