Paes-Bhupathi make exit; Tabara, Stoliarov in singles final

The Indian challenge came to an end in the ATP Gold Flake Open with the ace duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi being tamed by Barry Cowan of England and Mose Navarra (Italy) 2-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 in the doubles semi-final in Madras on Saturday night.

In the final on Sunday, the winners will clash against the top-seeded pair of Byron Black and Wayne Black of Zimbabwe, who outplayed Frantisek Cermak and Ota Fukarek 6-3 6-4 in the first semi-final.

In an interesting semi-final, the Indian pair seemed to have improved on performance, but Paes had to shoulder more responsibility than his partner Bhupathi, who was suspect with his first serves and committed quite a few double faults too.

In the final analysis, the Indian duo exited only because of shoddy display by Bhupathi, which cost the match for them.

Expectedly, Paes and Bhupathi, egged on by the capacity crowd, went about their business and found their moorings early and gave indications of yet another title win, the fourth for them since 1997.

With the exit of Paes and Bhupathi, who won the title thrice in a row -- they did not pair last year due to personal problems -- this is the first time that no Indian pair is in the final for the last four years in the tournament. Prahlad Srinath and Saurav Panja finished runners up last year.

Denmark's Kristian Pless retired with a shoulder injury, to give Michal Tabara of the Czech Republic a place in the final of the Gold Flake Indian Open tennis tournament.

The 19-year-old qualifier was trailing 0-4 in the first set when he decided to pull out.

Tabara, who finished 195th in the 2000 ATP Champions' Race, will play Russia's Andrei Stoliarov in the final. The unseeded Russian beat Spain's Tommy Robredo 4-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the other semi-final.

"I had expected a tough match from Pless and I am disappointed he could not play because of his shoulder," Tabara said.

"Pless normally has a big service, but by the second game he was hitting his second or third serve and I knew something was wrong."

Pless said his shoulder problem had started during Friday's quarter-final against Romanian Adrian Voinea.

"I thought I would be okay if I got a little bit of sleep, but when I woke up in the morning I was in a lot of pain. The tournament doctor tried to help me out, but I found I was unable to serve out on the court. Later, I started having problems with hitting my forehand as well and so I decided to quit rather than make the injury worse," he said.

Pless will rest for a few days and then attempt to qualify for the Australian Open, which starts on January 15.

Stoliarov, who lost the first set 4-6, fought back to win the next two sets.

Robredo exhibited some good variety in his game, but Stoliarov, who is ranked higher at 141 on the ATP list compared to Robredo's 184, got into his rhythm and reeled of some fine forehand winners.

This is the first time that Stoliarov and Tabara are figuring in the final of an ATP tour event.

Both are unseeded.