India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi suffered a 6-7(6), 1-6 defeat to Sweden's Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau of Romania in their first round Group A match of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, in London, on Monday.
Despite making their maiden appearance at the World Tour Finals, the sixth seeded pair of Lindstedt and Tecau proved to be too good for the experienced fourth seeded Indians who could convert only two of the 11 break points, all coming in the first set.
Lindstedt and Tecau could have won the set 6-4, but the former hit a double fault on sudden death deuce.
In the tie-break, Bhupathi hit a forehand return winner past Tecau for a 6-4 lead. Tecau then hit a smash winner for Lindstedt to place a lob over Paes to save both set points. At 6-6, Lindstedt smashed a forehand return winner before closing out the 59-minute set.
It took the winners just 28 minutes to beat the Indians in the second set.
