Paes-Bhupathi lose epic tennis bronze at Olympics

Paes and Bhupathi went down 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 14-16 to Croatia's Ancic and Ljubicic at the Olympic Games.

Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia won the men's doubles tennis bronze medal on Friday by upsetting fifth-seeded Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India 7-6 (5), 4-6, 16-14 in a match that lasted nearly four hours.

It's the third Olympic tennis medal in Croatia's history, all bronzes.

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The Croatians finally ended the match at 1:05 am local time (0335 IST) by breaking Paes' serve. Ancic smacked a forehand that Paes volleyed into the net.

Ancic, a singles semi-finalist at Wimbledon last month, and Ljubicic were playing just their fourth tournament together.

Bhupathi and Paes have been on-and-off doubles partners for years, winning three Grand Slam titles: the French Open in 1999 and 2000, and Wimbledon in 1999.

They split for good, it appeared, in May 2002, but recently teamed up again in hopes of winning an Olympic medal.

In Saturday's gold medal match, Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu of Chile will play Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler of Germany.