Paes' chants upset Australian Open doubles opponents

Updated on: 23 January,2011 07:25 AM IST |
IANS |

India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi's progress to the third round was marred by their unpleasant exchange with their opponents Argentina's Juan Monaco and his Spanish partner Feliciano Lopez

India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi's progress to the third round was marred by their unpleasant exchange with their opponents Argentina's Juan Monaco and his Spanish partner Feliciano Lopez.

The third-seeded Indians beat Monaco and Lopez 7-6 (2), 6-4 but the Argentine-Spanish pair were incensed by Paes' behaviour during the match and accused him of provoking them by yelling out "vamos", a Spanish equivalent of "come on."

After the match, Lopez refused to shake hands with Paes, instead politely acknowledging Bhupathi. Monaco ignored Bhupathi but shook Paes by the hand.

"We were playing, match was quiet and one of the players (Paes), he was trying to provoke us all the time," Lopez said. "I know it's the style he's been using the past 20 years. But that's OK. Nothing else," he said.

Paes and Bhupathi, however, shrugged off the incident with the former saying he has been using "vamos" for 17 years.

"It's hot out there, we're trying to beat each other," Bhupathi said. "A few unnecessary things were said. We just got into each other. Tried to raise the atmosphere. The crowd loved it. We got into it. I guess, they really had no reason to be as upset as they were.

"We were up a set and a break. It was just a case of not being in a happy place because they were down a set and a break," Bhupathi said.

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