By IANS,
Indianapolis (Indiana) : India’s Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi’s Olympic preparation received a set-back as the duo crashed out at the first round of Indianapolis Tennis Championships.
The top seeded Indian pair went down 4-6, 6-3, 10-12 to Canadian wild card holders Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer here Wednesday.
Paes-Bhupathi lost the first set but fought back to stretch the match to a tie-breaker.
Nestor and Niemeyer held their nerves in the match tie-break and held triple match point at 9-6. However, Bhupathi and Paes levelled the score at nine all and then went on to take a 10-9 lead. But the Canadians responded by winning the next three points to prevail against the former world No. 1 pair in an hour and 25 minutes.
Nestor who is the world No.1 doubles player teamed up with Niemeyer for the first time in an ATP event. The Canadians will be representing their country in the Olympics. Nestor, the 2000 Olympic doubles champion with Sebastien Lareau recently completed a career Golden Slam after winning the Wimbledon title with Serb Nenad Zimonjic.
With this loss, Paes and Bhupathi fell to a 217-79 win-loss career record. The pair is widely considered to be a medal prospect for India in Beijing Olympics.