University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC's Don Johnson Wins World Doubles Championship
December 18, 2000 | Men's Tennis
Dec. 18, 2000
BANGALORE, INDIA - UNC volunteer assistant tennis coach and 1990 UNC graduate Don Johnson and Piet Norval of South Africa are the world doubles champions. Johnson and Norval survived a marathon first set and beat Leander Peas and Mahesh Bhupathi of India 7-6 (10-8), 6-3, 6-4 to win the World Doubles Championship on Sunday in Bangalore, India.
Johnson, who resides in Carrboro and earlier this year won the mixed doubles championship at Wimbledon, will return Monday night from his triumph. Fans wanting to meet him can assemble at Raleigh-Durham International Airport's Terminal C for Johnson's American Airlines flight from Dallas which arrives tonight at 8:45 p.m. EST.
Norval and Johnson had lost to the Indian pair in the round-robin segment of the tournament.
Johnson and Norval had won doubles tournaments in Portugal, England and Switzerland this year, but had made early exits at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. They played as a team for the first time in this event.
The win was worth $150,000 to Johnson and Norval. Johnson has played with other partners twice before in the World Doubles, losing in the semifinals in 1998 and falling in round-robin play in 1997.
Paes and Bhupathi are now winless in three appearances in the tournament's title match. They started strong, breaking Johnson's serve in the very first game, but they couldn't keep the momentum going.
Paes was broken in the fourth game and Johnson held his serve for 3-2. They stayed on serve into the tiebreaker, when Johnson and Norval converted their second break point after saving two, finally ending the first set after more than one hour.
In the second set, Bhupathi had problems getting his first serve in and served four double faults, losing served in the fifth and ninth games of the set.
Johnson, 32, of Chapel Hill, N.C., struggled with his served initially but found his touch in the third set. The Indians' only chance came in the fifth game, when they held three break points on Johnson's sedrve but failed to convert. Johnson and Norval continued to exert pressure and broke Bhupathi's serve in the 10th game to wrap up their first title.
"I rate this tournament at par with the Grand Slam events. And as far as I am concered, it is my first major title. It was a great way to end the season after having dominated the latter part of it," Norval said.
