Nirupama makes it a doubles double

It was Super Sunday for Indian tennis players, with Nirupama Vaidyanathan, the country's top-ranked women's player, partnering Melissa Middleton of the USA to take the doubles title at the $75,000 Challenger in Bradenton, Florida.

This win followed on the heels of the Atlanta doubles win by Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes.

The Vaidyanathan-Middleton pairing sliced through Janet Lee of Taipei and Samantha Reeves of the US 6-4, 6-2.

This is Nirupama's career best result, fetching her 59 WTA points including 3 bonus points. Added to the 22 points she acquired last week during her title win in Vietnam, her total tally moves to 267 points, which should see her ranking go up to around the 130 mark within the next fortnight.

This is Nirupama's eighth doubles title, with five of them coming in the past twelve months. Her run began with the $50,000 Mahwah title in July 2000 in tandem with Dominikovic, followed by the $50,000 event in Pittsburgh, the $25,000 event in Hayward (both November 2000, in tandem with Nana Miyagi) and $25,000 event in Vietnam last week, partnering Manisha Malhotra.

During the same time frame, she lost two title matches, partnering Nana Miyagi and Lisa McShea respectively, in October last year.

Her three previous Challenger titles came in 1996-'97 at Bad Gogging, and Stuttgart, in Germany and at Poitiers in France.