Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi put aside their growing differences on Saturday to lift India into the play-offs for the Davis Cup world group for the first time in three years.
The former world number one doubles pair defeated Japan's Takao Suzuki and Satoshi Iwabuchi 7-6 (7/2), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to hand the hosts a decisive 3-0 lead in the Asia-Oceania group 1 second round tie.
It was India's eighth successive win at home against the Japanese since 1961 and carried them into September's play-offs for the elite 16-nation world group. India last appeared in the world group in 1998 and have not taken part in the play-offs since 2005. "After all that happened in the past few months, this win is very satisfying," said Paes.
Paes and Bhupathi, who won three Grand Slam doubles titles in 1999 before parting ways a year later for as yet unspecified reasons, only team up for India in the Davis Cup, the Olympics and the Asian Games. They took the court on Saturday a day after Paes was quoted as saying in a television interview that the decision to take up doubles was the "worst mistake of his career."
Indian tennis officials, however, retained Paes as captain and said the matter would be resolved after the Beijing Olympics in August. On Friday, Bopanna beat Kei Nishikori in the opening singles before Amritraj overcame Go Soeda. Both matches lasted five sets. The reverse singles on Sunday will be best-of-three-set affairs since the tie is already decided.
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