Lee vs Hesh: Off-court adversaries turn on-court rivals

New York: It's a past any doubles team would trade theirs for. Indian's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have shared three Grand Slam wins between them and have reached five Grand Slam finals together.

But on Friday at the US Open men's doubles final Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy will be on opposite sides of the court facing Bhupathi

and his Bahamanian partner Mark Knowles.

Paes though has not given this equation too much of a thought.

"As for the final against Mahesh, we have faced each other across the net enough times and there really is no room for anything other than professionalism out there. The team that stays clinical and executes its strategy best under pressure will prevail," says Paes

The last few years have been very turbulent for the two players. It started with their tiff during the Asian Games in Doha in 2006.

"He has made comments that he will never play with me again. I am not going to go and beg anybody," Bhupathi had said during the Doha Asian Games.

Paes had reacted by saying, "I am sure that what was told to Mahesh and that's why he reacted was not the truth."

The tiff continued right on till the Davis Cup tie in India before the Beijing Olympics were Bhupathi and Paes found themselves pitted against each other.

"We can't go to the Olympics and win. There has to be preparation, there has to be communication. So a lot of things have to fall in place before that happens," Bhupathi had said.

But the Olympics saw the two come together for their country. They may not have re-produced the magic that they once used to falling prey to the Swiss pair of Roger Federer and Stansilas Wawrinka, but the Indian Express were willing to share the same side when it came to playing for India.

"I will definitely extend my hand in communication to sit down with him and bring up all that we have to talk about. I have no problem with that," Paes said.

Now the two will be battling each other for a Grand Slam title.

Paes is hungry for his 10th and Bhupathi would want to relive 2002 when he last won a title at the Flushing Meadows in New York.

But for tennis fans in India this is another chapter in the Lee-Hesh saga they would not want to miss.

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