New York, Sep 1 (IANS) Defending champions and third seeds Leander Paes of India and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic made a shocking first round exit from the US Open, losing 7-6(7), 3-6, 4-6 to Czech Martin Damm and Filip Polasek of Slovakia.
Paes and Dlouhy, who had a poor run in the recent months, blew away the opening set advantage Tuesday as they went down to the Czech-Slovak pair for the second time this season, having lost the final of the Sunrise Challenger event in March.
India’s Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi advanced to the second round of the men’s doubles.
Bopanna-Qureshi, seeded 16th, staved off the second set fightback of American pair Brian Battistone and Ryler DeHeart to win 6-3, 7-6(7).
The India-Pakistan duo awaits the winner of the match between Americans Sekou Bangoura and Nathan Pasha and Michael Kohlmann of Germany and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.
Fourth seeds India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Miryni of Belarus will open their campaign against Arnaud Clement and Nicolas Mahut of France Wednesday.
In the mixed doubles, Bopanna and Chinese Zi Yan will take on Aravane Rezai of France and Rajeev Ram of the US.
In the singles, India’s Sania Mirza will take on Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, seeded 28th.
