French Open: Paes, Bopanna ousted as Indian challenge end in men's doubles

Paris: Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna lost their respective quarterfinal matches as Indian challenge in the men's doubles event 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 fifth seeded formidable American pair of Mike and Bob Bryan. The result was 7-6 (14-12), 6-3 in favour of Bryan brothers.

Earlier, in a lopsided contest, Bopanna and Mergea struggled to handle Dodig and Melo's fine service games. The Indo-Romanian combine was broken once in the opening set and failed to convert either of the two break points it 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.

Later for the 43-year-old Paes, eyeing a record seventh Olympics appearance, it was good first set in which the Indo-Polish pair stretched their much-fancied American duo to the tie-breaker. This was after both pairs traded a break each.

The only thing separating the duo was second serve percentage where Paes and his partner were not upto the mark.

The Bryans also won more points on their first serve. The tie-breaker was also well fought before the Americans clinched the set on the 26th point.

The second set was much easier one as the Bryan brothers converted double service break to romp home 6-3 and clinch a place in the semifinals.