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I’m ready to partner Mahesh: Moodie

Poor results, focus on singles and the Indian’s injury all combined in ending his association with Bhupathi, says Moodie.

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Poor results, focus on singles and the Indian’s injury all combined in ending his association with Bhupathi, says Moodie.

MUMBAI: When it happened last year, it was considered a new beginning —- the start of a long and fruitful partnership.

After all, it was doubles ace Mahesh Bhupathi forging a combination with Wesley Moodie, the South African who had surprised tennis aficionados the world over by winning the coveted All England title as a qualifier —- along with Stephen Huss —- at the expense of all the other top teams. However, the association ended sooner than it had taken time to materialise.

“When we decided to form a partnership, Mahesh was already an established doubles player and it was expected that we’d be among the top teams in the world. That didn’t happen,” says Moodie. But is that enough reason for calling it quits considering they had been together for hardly six months?

“To be honest, the main reason for ending the partnership was that I wanted to concentrate on the singles. When Mahesh asked me to play with him, I was ready to sacrifice singles and give doubles a shot. But when the results didn’t come in I thought my singles was also suffering,” says Moodie. “And of course results are all that matter for a partnership to prosper. We didn’t have them because of a combination of factors like bad draws, some close matches and Mahesh’s injury problems.”

A Wimbledon doubles champion preferring singles instead? “If you ask me my singles title in Tokyo last year was much more satisfying,” he says. “Wimbledon was so unreal. I mean we’re there to have fun but made it through to the qualifying and then kept on winning.”

But even his singles career hasn’t taken off after that odd win at the Japan Open. “But it’s special. When going through the winner’s trophy and noticing names like Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg (his favourite player) and Pete Sampras, it felt proud to have my name in that list,” he says. “And I think with the kind of game I have, I deserve to be in the top 30 in the singles.”

Next week, he will, for the first time in his career, defends points. Is he nervous, considering this time the draw in Tokyo features Roger Federer as well? “I don’t feel any pressure now. But I don’t know what will happen after I reach Tokyo,” he says.

At 27, he certainly doesn’t have many years ahead of him.  “Well, my wife’s pregnant and I’m going to be a father by the end of the year. My wife has so far been supportive of my career but for me family was always the first priority,” he says. And where will tennis figure in his scheme of things then?

“I’ll continue playing singles and maybe doubles. I’m ready to partner Mahesh again. If we’re to forge a combination all over again and do a few things right we still have a chance to be among the top teams in the world,” he signs off.

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