Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna went down fighting to sixth seeds Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez of Spain in the finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals here. Granollers and Lopez became the second Spanish team to win the season-ending championships late Monday when they defeated fifth-seeded Indians 7-5, 3-6, 10-3.

“It’s always tough playing them,” Bhupathi was quoted as saying by the ATP website. “They're not a conventional doubles team. They make it very, very difficult in more ways than one, no matter who they play.”

Bhupathi and Bopanna end their partnership with a 34-22 season record. Last week, they won their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.   Bhupathi, who was making his 12th appearance, has now finished as runner-up on five occasions - in 1997, 1999-2000 with Leander Paes and with Max Mirnyi in 2010.

Bops to partner Ram
The Indian duo end the 2012 season and their partnership with two titles — Dubai and the Paris Masters. Bhupathi will partner Daniel Nestor in the next season while Bopanna will be playing with Rajeev Ram.

“Rajeev is a great player and given our individual strengths, and his command of the deuce court, I believe that we can complement each other very well on the court,” Bopanna said. The duo had earlier made an appearance as a team at the

Australian Open in 2008, where as an unseeded combination they proceeded to the pre-quarters.