Wednesday, January 26, 2011

G'Day Mate

Former Ole Miss men's tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi is enjoying success down under at the Australian Open. The 1995 NCAA Doubles Champion recently reunited with his fellow countryman and former doubles partner, Leander Paes, to try and win the only doubles grand slam trophy he doesn't have in his trophy case. The duo advanced to the semifinals with a straight set win over the eighth seeded team of Michael Llodra (FRA)/Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) in the quarterfinals. Bhupathi and Paes will face the No. 2 seeds, Max Mirnyi (BLR) and Daniel Nestor (CAN) in the semifinals. In 1999, Bhupathi and Paes won the French Open and Wimbledon and then won the French Open again in 2001, before splitting up for nine years.


Photo by Wayne Taylor

Bhupathi will have two opportunities to win a grand slam this week, as he is also in the Mixed Doubles quarterfinals with Australia's Anastasia Rodionova.

While at Ole Miss, Bhupathi led the Rebels to the NCAA team finals. He became the first Rebel tennis player to win an NCAA title when he captured the Doubles Championship in 1995 and ended the year as the No. 1 doubles team in the nation.

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