New York, Sep 3 (IANS) Veteran Indian star Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the men's doubles competition after losing their respective matches at the US Open tennis tournament.
The Indo-German pair of Paes and Andre Begemann gave a tough fight before going down 6-2, 5-7, 4-6 in one hour and 59 minutes in the first round against Stephane Robert of France and Dudi Sela of Israel here on Friday.
Next, Indo-Danish pair of Rohan Bopanna and Frederik Nielsen went down against American Brian Baker and New Zealand's Marcus Daniell 2-6, 6-7 (5).
Bopanna-Nielsen relinquished grip on the first in just 30 minutes at Court 6. Baker-Daniell converted two of the four break points received to comfortably pocket the first set.
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They maintained their ascendancy in the second set too another quick break of serve to jump to a 4-2 lead.
Baker-Daniell served for the match at 5-3 but were broke by some dogged play from Bopanna-Nielsen to square it 5-5.
The Indo-Danish pair forced the set to a tiebreaker where they got a 3-0 lead but could not sustain the advantage to lose it 5-7, thereby surrendering the match in an hour and 14 minutes.
The victors against Paes-Begemann, Robert and Sela will now take on Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Alexander Peya of Austria in the second round.
The 12th seeded Polish-Austrian team defeated Americans Eric Quigley and Nicolas Meister 7-6, 6-1 in their opening round encounter.
Paes and Begemann enjoyed a superb start, breaking their opponents in the very first game to gain the early advantage.
They broke their opponents again in the fifth to take a 4-1 lead and then held their serve to take the set.
The Indo-German combination grabbed the early initiative in the second set as well, forcing a break of serve in the third game to take a 2-1 lead.
The set then went with the serve which saw Paes and Begemann on the verge of taking the set with a 5-4 lead.
Robert and Sela, however, staged a spirited comeback to earn a break of serve and level the scores at 5-5. They then held their serve before forcing another break to take the set and draw level.
In the third set, Paes and Begermann again earned a break in the opening game to take the early lead. Both teams held their serve thereafter before Robert and Sela broke their Indo-German opponents in the eighth game.
They held their serve in the next game to take the lead at 5-4 before another break of serve in the 10th game handed them the set and the match.
--IANS
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