Rain played spoilsport to drop early curtains on the men's doubles quarterfinals match with the Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi trailing 1-4 to the Swiss duo of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in the Beijing Olympics on Thursday night.
The match was into its 16th minute with the seventh seeded Indians pushed to the corner when the sky opened up and what started as mere drizzle grew in strength, forcing the match officials to call off the tie.
Both the pairs would return on Friday to play out the remainder of the match.
Federer, looked determined to make amends for his shock singles defeat barely a couple of hours before and he and Wawrinka were clearly in full control of the proceedings before rain halted their march.
Federer served the first game and he wrapped it up in style with an ace and it was his fierce crosscourt backhand that clinched the second game as well.
Wawrinka maintained the tempo as he held his serve to put the side 3-0 ahead with the Indians lacking coordination and looking jaded.
The Indians finally managed to break the duck in the fourth game when Paes held his serve but so did Federer as the fourth seeded Swiss pair went 4-1 ahead in the match.
But before they could resume, the pitter-patter grew in strength and the match was eventually called off.
