China Open: Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna crash out with respective partners in first round

Beijing: Indian doubles specialists Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna bowed out of the China Open tennis tournament on Monday getting beaten in their respective men’s double first round matches. Bopanna and his Canadian partner Daniel Nestor were beaten by Spanish duo Rafael Nadal and Pablo Carreno Busta 6-7, 4-6 while Paes and Germany’s Andre Begemann lost to American-Australian duo of Jack Sock and Bernard Tomic 6-3, 5-7, 7-10. [caption id=“attachment_3032668” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Leander Paes of India and Andre Begemann of Germany. Getty[/caption] In a contest, which lasted around one hour 30 minutes, the Indo-Canadian pair of Bopanna-Nestor started off the proceedings on a positive note. But their Spanish opponents proved superior at decisive phases of the contest. The first set was evenly contested with both teams winning their service games. But the Indo-Canadian pair surrendered serve thrice in the tie breaker to relinquish the first set. In the second set, Bopanna and Nestor got a break up in the first game but were quickly broken back to leave the set square at 1-1. The two teams then matched stroke for stroke but Bopanna-Nestor lost their grip at the most crucial stage of the match, losing their serve, while down 4-5 to lose the second set in 34 minutes. Nadal and Carreno will now face the Chinese pair of Mao-Xin Gong and Ze Zhang, who defeated America’s Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey 3-6, 6-3, 10-4. In other match, Paes and Begemann gave a spirited display but ultimately accepted defeat after an hour and 27 minutes.