Doubles trouble after Leanders vamos call

Feliciano Lopez and the Argentine Juan Monaco of bodyline tactics by drilling serves directly at them in a fiery encounter.

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Doubles players angrily squared up to each other at the Australian Open on Saturday,with Indian pair Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes going eyeball-to-eyeball with their opponents at the net. Bhupathi and Paes accused Spains Feliciano Lopez and the Argentine Juan Monaco of bodyline tactics by drilling serves directly at them in a fiery encounter.

It was heat of the moment, Bhupathi told reporters,playing down a potentially nasty confrontation as the players came to the net to shake hands after the match. Its hot out there,were trying to beat each other. A few unnecessary things were said. We just got into each other.

Tried to raise the atmosphere, Bhupathi added after the third seeds had won their second round match 7-6 6-4. The crowd loved it. Bhupathi said Lopez and Monaco got hot under the collar about the Indians constantly yelling Vamos! (Come on! in Spanish) to fire themselves up.

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Paes was equally bemused by the verbal sparring,a rarity in tennis. The Melbourne sun kind of gets all of us a bit tired. We get stuck into it a little bit, he shrugged. Its not such a big deal. Tennis is not a contact sport. A few things happen. We can sort ourselves out.

No patent

Both Indian players insisted they were not guilty of sledging. Ive been using Vamos! for about 17 years, said Paes. Whether its Vamos! or Allez! Nobody has a patent.

Bhupathi accused his rivals of deliberating trying to hurt Paes. There was one serve fired at Leander,unless he actually missed it by that much,which is possible, he said. I dont think he would have missed it by that much. They couldnt go through Leander,so they were trying to take him out.

Paes promised to keep using his pidgin Spanish. We dont mean anything bad by it. I love Spain. I love Spanish people. I love the language. I love the food.

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Lopez,meanwhile,blamed Paes for the unsavoury spat. He was trying to provoke us all the time, he fumed. We were a little tired of the style he was using on the court.

Bhupathi suggested the Lopez and Monaco were being over-protective of their language,while Paes hyped up the sequel,noting: Got another bunch of Spaniards in the next round!