Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna lost their respective quarter-final matches as the Indian challenge in the men’s doubles category at the French Open came to an end on Wednesday.
Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, seeded sixth, went down 4-6, 4-6 to third seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcelo Melo of Brazil.
The 16th-seeded Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski also lost in straight sets to formidable American pair, fifth seeds Mike and Bob Bryan, losing 6-7 (12), 3-6.
Earlier, in a lopsided contest, Bopanna and Mergea struggled to handle Dodig and Melo’s fine service games.
The Indo-Romanian duo was broken once in the opening set and failed to convert either of the two break points they earned. Bopanna and Mergea also committed a couple of double faults.
The second set followed a similar script and once again, Bopanna and Mergea failed to break their rivals. Dodig and Melo, however, continued to be dominant with their first serve besides converting one of the three break points they earned to outwit the sixth seeds.
The 43-year-old Paes, eyeing a record seventh Olympics appearance, played a good first set with his Polish partner, stretching their much-fancied American opponents to the tiebreaker after both teams traded a service break each.
{{/usCountry}}The 43-year-old Paes, eyeing a record seventh Olympics appearance, played a good first set with his Polish partner, stretching their much-fancied American opponents to the tiebreaker after both teams traded a service break each.
{{/usCountry}}The only thing separating the duo was second serve percentage, in which Paes and his partner were not upto the mark. The Bryans also won more points on their first serve.
The tiebreaker was also well fought before the Americans clinched the set on the 26th point.
The second set was much easier for the Bryan brothers as they converted double service break to romp home 6-3 and clinch a place in the semi-finals.