By Christopher Lancette
New relationships are tricky – those first few dates so riddled with angst, doubt and jitters of all varieties. Is this someone I want to spend time with? Will this work? Should we go out again?
The Australian Open doubles team of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek are answering all those questions in the affirmative. They fought off a racquet bag full of set points while down 2-5 in the first against the third-seeded pairing of Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic en route to an upset that advances them to the quarterfinals.
 Radek Stepanek (Left) and Leander Paes -Photos by Won-ok Kim |
Not bad for a pair of guys who had only won one tournament together a long time ago — Delray Beach in 2004.
“We had great fun, great magic, right from the beginning,” Stepanek said earlier this week of the first time they played together.
That magic propelled them through a thrilling match against Llodra and Zimonjic after getting off to such a slow start that often-oblivious broadcaster Jeff Tarango actually appeared to be accurate in criticizing their game. Tarango got so carried away that he dismissed them as if Paes and Stepanek were rookies – even predicting on air in the second set that Llodra and Zimonjic would come back and win the match. Perhaps Paes and Stepanek overheard the conversation as they turned up the intensity one more notch and won the second set in a tie-breaker.
Unlike their sour-faced opponents who little resembled the team that knocked out the Bryan Brothers to win the Rogers Cup final in Montreal last summer, Paes and Stepanek were breaking out a multitude of hand slaps and fist pumps.
“When we get out on the court,” Paes said this week, “we have similar styles. We are aggressive and we like to have fun with our tennis.”
Stepanek definitely has a lighter side. He may be the only man on the pro tour to admit that he developed his tournament championship dance move (“the worm”) while enjoying a bevy of adult beverages. (See our YouTube interview with Stepanek.) Stepanek demonstrated that dance skill at the 2011 Legg Mason Tennis Classic, where he bellied up to the fountain-of-youth bar in Washington and stunned everyone by winning the tournament. Paes also turned in a masterful D.C. performance that summer, anchoring the doubles action and propelling his Washington Kastles to a World Team Tennis championship.
Does the fact that they didn’t do much more than overlap their play in one city put them at a competitive disadvantage over doubles teams that spend more time together? Apparently not.
“We just go out there and play with instinct, really,” Paes said. “You learn on the job as well.”
If they get promoted all the way through the Aussie final, Stepanek would claim his first Grand Slam event title and 14th overall. Paes would pack his trophy case with his thirteenth Major title.