By Nick Georgandis
TennisNow.com

The Indian Express rides again.

The doubles team of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes won their first doubles title together since 2002 on Sunday, defeating the Netherlands' Robin Haase and the US' David Martin, 6-2, 7-6(7-3), 10-7 to win the Aircel Chennai Open.

Paes and Bhupathi won 22 doubles titles together from 1997-2002, including three Grand Slam titles - two at Roland Garros and one at Wimbledon.

A bitter personal feud followed, with the pair reuniting only for the 2006 Asian Games, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and last year for the Thailand Open, where they lost in the first round. I
n Sunday's final, they overcame a second-set tie-breaker loss to emerge victorious, hitting 88 percent of their first serves successfully in the third set and winning four of five second return points.

It was Paes' 45th career doubles title. Bhupathi has totaled 47. The pair agreed to put aside differences as the end of last year in an attempt to complete their career Grand Slams by winning the Australian Open.

During their hiatus as playing partners, each man won the US Open with a different partner.

The Sunday setting is particularly ironic, given the frequent rumor that the Paes-Bhupathi partnership was badly damaged by at an event during the 2001 Chennai Open in which the players both pursued the same Bollywood actress at a hotel bar, only to end up in a fist fight with each other.