Paes, Bhupathi bow out of Indian Wells

The Indian challenge at the BNP Paribas Open ended after Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi lost their respective second-round doubles matches at the US $4.5 million tennis tournament in Indian Wells.

Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy, seeded fourth, went down 6-7 (6), 6-7 (5) to Argentines Juan Martin Del Potro and David Nalbandian.

In another match, the third seeded pair of Bhupathi and Bahamian Mark Knowles were stunned 6-7 (2), 4-6 by the unseeded Israeli-Belarussian duo of Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram.

The twin losses rounded off a disappointing Indian campaign at the hard-court event, where Sania Mirza couldn't go past the second round in women's singles and crashed out of doubles in the first round itself.