WAHT A PAIR!...India's Mahesh Bhupati (right) and Rika Hiraki of Japan with the French Open mixed double trophy after beating top seeds Lisa Raymond and Patrick Gailbraith of th USA 6-4, 6-1.

NEW DELHI, June 8: Nikhila Natrajan of The Indian Express sports desk, who was ranked No 1 under-14 and No 2 under-16, has been on the Indian tennis circuit for 10 years. She recollects the arrival of a starry-eyed youngster who went on to become the first Indian ever to win a Grand Slam title.

We were sitting under a shamiana at the Jai Club in Jaipur, waiting for our matches at the International Tennis Federation's junior tournament to be announced. It was five years ago. There was this chubby boy, his walkman cradled in his lap, changing the cassette. `` I haven't seen you on the Indian circuit too often,'' I said.

He said he was Mahesh Bhupathi. And he was playing, if my memory serves me right, Bikram Saluja, who later became the Adonis Graviera Man of the Year, at 12 o'clock. The match started in the afternoon on Court 2.

Then we saw the serve. And soon started talking about it. God! what a racket, people said, and when they turned round to look, they saw a chubby youngster banging down serves like his life depended on them. His booming serve has overshadowed every other part of his game, no matter how good they are. His forehand has always has been his favourite. Those days, he loved finishing off points quickly. He still does.

Later, I saw the Non-Residential Indian kid who hit the Indian circuit conquering away with his serves. The players and the press started talking about him. And interesting stories about him started floating in the circuit.There was this one about Mahesh and Leander Paes. A year ago they entered into a pact that if they get a direct entry into the doubles draw at the Wimbledon, both would pierce their ears. And they did. But that's where the problem started. How was Mahesh to break the news to Bhupathi Senior? So Kavita, Mahesh's sister who studies at Mount Carmel, Bangalore, was chosen to do the dirty work.

In fact, despite all the success and hype, there remains in Mahesh a fear born out of respect for his father who has chiselled his game from the hit-and-run variety to the more refined and mature one that has brought him the French Open mixed doubles title.

The circuitlore also has the chronicle of his love story. Mahesh was studying at the Indian School in Muscat where he met the girl he is smitten by Shuchita. But in 1989, a year after they met, he started playing the junior circuit, and Shuchita moved to Canada. They lost touch for five years, but met again in Muscat. Shuchita, a student of commercial art, lives in Delhi. ``Mahesh is very straightforward and that is what I like best about him,'' she says.

Though Mahesh's mother tongue is Telugu, he is more comfortable with English. And he is even more at home in a pair of baggy bermudas and a T-shirt. But his tastebuds still owe their allegiance to his southern roots he loves Vada Sambar. For that matter he loves all things desi. `` I've seen Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge six times on the big screen,'' he says.On the Indian tennis circuit, he is usually seen around with the Kirtane brothers Sandeep and Nitin, Vinod Ramachandran, Anand Sukumar, Vikrant Chadda, and of course Leander. He also keeps in touch with Mumbai-born Manisha Malhotra, who is training in the US.

Mahesh has established himself as a doubles player to contend with (He is ranked 52 to Paes's 53 in the ATP) and has annexed two ATP doubles titles with Leander by winning the Gold Flake Indian Open at Chennai in April followed by the Czech Open in Prague, adding to his impressive Davis Cup doubles showing with Paes.

Unlike the more colourful Leander, striving to break into the top 100 in the men's singles, Mahesh's singles career is yet to really take off. Yet, Mahesh has achieved a feat which many of his illustrious predecessors could not.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.