By Ossian Shine

MELBOURNE, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram put Israel on the grand slam map on Saturday when they won the men's doubles title at the Australian Open, but immediately turned their thoughts to improving Arab-Israeli relations by playing in a tournament in Dubai in March.

Erlich and Ram beat Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 7-5 7-6 to become the first Israeli pair to win a grand slam title.

The victory more than made amends for the defeat in Friday's women's final for their compatriot Shahar Peer and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Peer, the women's world number 17, plans to compete in the Feb. 18-24 Qatar Open, which would make her the first Israeli to play a tour event in the Gulf region.

Erlich and Ram said they could follow suit by playing in the men's event in Dubai, from March 3-8.

"That's one of our plans," Ram told reporters. "We talked about it. We didn't decide 100 percent yet. But definitely it's something new we want to do."

Peer told Reuters last week that she had been reassured by tournament officials that she will be safe in Doha and Ram said the ATP were working to give them the same assurances.

"It's a big tournament to play. We want to play there. I heard it's a great country. I don't see a reason why not to go there and play."

HEIGHTENED TENSIONS

Ram said that Peer's decision to go to Doha had inspired them to consider playing in Dubai, despite the heightened tensions between Israel and its neighbouring Muslim countries.

"It's a great thing for tennis," Ram said. "We don't have to involve, like everybody says, politics with sport. Arab country, Israelis...I don't think we have to involve anything in sport according to politics or religions."

The pair said they are currently exploring the possibility of getting a visa to enter Dubai.

"And we are trying to keep it low profile right now, to see how it goes," Erlich said. "We don't want really to (make) big news here or there before we really know what the situation is."

Ram said he and Erlich had received messages of congratulations from all over Israel, while even the country's prime minister Ehud Olmert had left a message.

"It's big for a small country like Israel to get Shahar Peer in the finals, us winning the title," Ram said. "It's big.

"You don't see USA in the finals here, not in doubles, not in mixed, not in singles (and they are) like an empire. So I think it's big."

(Writing by Ossian Shine, editing by Alastair Himmer)

The duo, whose previous best Grand Slam performance was a semifinal showing at 2003 Wimbledon, converted two of ten break points and held their nerve in the tie-break to seal victory in one hour and 50 minutes.

Erlich/Ram, who won the title without the loss of a single set, were the first Israeli duo to appear in a Grand Slam final in the Open Era. The only other Israeli man to advance to a Grand Slam men’s doubles final in the Open Era was Shlomo Glickstein at 1985 Roland Garros, partnering Hans Simonsson.

En route to the final, Erlich and Ram defeated Kunitsyn/Tursunov, Lipsky/Martin, ninth seeds Cermak/Dlouhy, Gicquel/Santoro and sixth seeds Bhupathi/ Knowles.

Ranked 18 in the Stanford ATP Doubles Rankings, Erlich and Ram were appearing in just their first Grand Slam final at their 20th major. They had lost to Clement/Llodra in both previous meetings, including a US Open fourth round clash last year.

The Israeli pairing now have 11 career titles together, last season they were victorious in AMS Cincinnati and finished runners-up in Las Vegas, AMS Indian Wells and Washington.

This was Erlich and Ram’s sixth joint appearance at the Australian Open, and prior to this year they had never advanced past the fourth round, falling at that stage in 2005 and 2007.

The Israelis have now posted a 9-2 season thus far in 2008, reaching the semifinals in Adelaide (l. to Guccione/Smeets) and the quarterfinals in Sydney (l. to Bryan/Bryan) prior to the Australian Open.

2007 Wimbledon champions Clement and Llodra (pictured left) were appearing in their second Grand Slam together final in seven majors and were the fourth all-French pairing to reach the Melbourne final in the Open Era.

They reached the final without the loss of a set, including victories over No. 10 seeds Butorac/Ullyett in the third round and No. 2 seeds Nestor/Zimonjic in the quarterfinals.

World No. 17 Llodra is now a four-time finalist at the Australian Open, he won the title twice, in 2003 and 2004 with Fabrice Santoro. World No. 12 Clement, who reached the singles final in Melbourne in 2001, is the first player to reach the singles and doubles finals in a Grand Slam since Petr Korda who was doubles champion in 1996 and singles champion in 1998.

They will face first-time Grand Slam finalists and No. 8 seeds Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich (pictured above) in the title match after the Israeli duo dismissed sixth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles in 6-4 sets.

Llodra will be going for his third Australian Open doubles title, having won back-to-back crowns from 2003-04 with compatriot Fabrice Santoro. The two also reached the final in 2002. Clement, the 2001 singles runner-up, will be appearing in his first Australian Open doubles final. His previous best finish came six years ago when he reached the semifinals with compatriot Julien Boutter, falling to Llodra and Santoro.

In Llodra and Clement’s previous Melbourne appearances together, they reached the second round in 2006 and made a first round exit last year.

Ram and Erlich are making their sixth appearance in Melbourne and had previously not advanced beyond the third round. Their best Grand Slam result before this week was a semifinal run four years ago at Wimbledon.

Last season, they finished in the Top 10 of the Stanford ATP Doubles Race for the third straight year with excellent result on hard courts. They won their first ATP Masters Series title in Cincinnati and also reached the final in Indian Wells.

Coetzee and Moodie were attempting to reach their second straight final after a runner-up effort in Doha in their team's first appearance this season. Coetzee was looking to reach his first Grand Slam final, while Moodie clinched his only career Slam title in 2005 at Wimbledon after he and Aussie Stephen Huss qualified into the main draw.

Doubles veterans Bhupathi and Knowles, who were making their Grand Slam debut as a tandem, were both looking for return trips to the Aussie Open final. Bhupathi and fellow Indian Leander Paes were finalists in 1999. Knowles reached his first final in 1995 with long-time partner Daniel Nestor, but waited another seven years to win their first Australian Open doubles title. They followed in 2003 with another runner-up finish.

The World No. 1 Bryan brothers fought back from a 2-4 deficit in the third set and had one break point in the ninth game against the new pairing for the 2008 season. Bhupathi and Paes took their chances, winning 111 points to the Bryans’ 110 total points, for a place in the semifinals.

The Bryans captured the 2006 (d. Damm-Paes) and 2007 (d. Bjorkman-Mirnyi) Australian Open titles, following two runner-up finishes in 2004 (l. to Llodra-Santoro) and 2005 (l. to Black-Ullyett).

Bhupathi and Knowles will next meet eight-seeded Israelis Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram (pictured), who defeated Frenchmen Marc Gicquel and Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-1.

With their 69-minute victory over the new tandem, Erlich and Ram matched their team's best Grand Slam result - a semifinal finish in 2003 at Wimbledon. The Israelis are making their sixth appearance in Melbourne and had previously not advanced beyond the third round.

The 35-year-old Santoro, the winner of the 2003-04 Australian Open doubles title with compatriot Michael Llodra, was making his 16th and final appearance in Melbourne - his 12th in the doubles draw - after making his singles debut in 1991. He bowed out to World No. 1 Roger Federer last week in the second round of the singles main draw.

http://www.atptennis.com/1/en/doubles/