Paes exits; Bopanna stumbles

Veteran Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek were knocked out of the Australian Open men’s doubles competition after going down in straight sets in the quarterfinal on Wednesday.

Paes and Stepanek, seeded fifth in the event, were put away 2-6, 6-7 (4-7) by the 13th-seeded French combination of Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut.

With Paes’ loss, the Indian challenge in the men’s doubles competition has come to an end.

Paes is still alive in the mixed doubles competition where he is partnering Daniela Hantuchova. The duo will take on Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic in the quarterfinals.

In a late quarterfinal match, second seeds Rohan Bopanna and his Slovakian partner Katerina Srebotnik lost to Matthew Ebden and Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 5-7, 3-6.

Bopanna had already made his exit from the men’s doubles competition, where he partnered Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi.