Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy on Sunday crashed out of the French Open men's doubles competition after losing 4-6, 4-6 at the hands of Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Luis Horna of Peru in the pre-quarterfinals in Paris.
Nothing went right for the ninth seeded Indo-Czech duo and they were rusty throughout the 64-minute contest. They were second best in serve and could not hold on their own in the rallies. On top of that, they had double faults at crucial points.
Their unseeded opponents got as many as 11 break points in the match, though converted only three of them. But for saving eight break points by Paes and Dlouhy, the match would have been finished even quicker and scoreline much worse for the Indo-Czech pair.
Cuevas and Horna now run into top seeds Byran brothers -- Bob and Mike -- in the quarterfinals.
With the exit of Paes, no Indian survived in the men's doubles. Mahesh Bhupathi, who paired up with Bahamas' Mark Knowles, and Rohan Bopanna, who teamed up with Pakistani Aisam Qureshi, had earlier lost in their opening rounds.
Paes, who won doubles titles here in 1999 and 2001 partnering with Bhupathi on both occasions, teams up with Nadia Petrova of Russia in mixed doubles and they will take on the duo of his estranged partner Bhupathi and Jie Zheng of China in the first round.
Meanwhile, Yuki Bambri also made an early exit in the Boy's singles after suffering a humialiating 2-6, 1-6 straight set defeat against Guillaume Rufin of France in the opening round.
The Delhi lad was outplayed by his opponent in all departments of the game in the 62-minute contest.
