JOIN USIndian pair makes early exit
A long and rich career in Olympic history came to a sad end on Saturday when Leander Paes bowed out of the men’s doubles event with a defeat in the first round.
Paes, partnering Rohan Bopanna and competing in his seventh Olympic Games, lost to Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski 4-6, 7-6 (8-6) at the Olympic Tennis Centre.
On a hot morning, Paes and Bopanna had their chances in both the sets as well as the tie-break but failed to grab them as the Polish combine cashed in. As Bopanna’s backhand volley went wide on match point in the second set tie-break, Paes embraced dejection and quietly slumped to the courtside chair.
It was in Barcelona 24 years back that his Olympic journey started as an eager 19-year-old. Four years later, the son of Olympic hockey bronze medallist Vece Paes brought another bronze medal home from the Atlanta Olympic Games of 1996.
Since then, it has been a frustrating and futile chase for another medal for the Kolkatan. Partnering Bhupathi, he lost to the Woodies -- Mark and Todd Woodbridge -- at the Sydney Games and then suffered a heart-breaking loss to Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in the bronze medal match in Athens 2004.
Stanislas Wawrinka and Roger Federer halted them at Beijing 2008 while at London, a controversial build-up period culminated in defeat, with Vishnu Vardhan being Paes’ partner. This time, the 43-year-old's partnership with Bopanna too took a rocky route before Kubot and Matkowski pulled the curtains down on the drama at Court No 5.
The Polish pair played as a well-oiled unit against the Indians who faltered at crucial moments. The teams traded breaks in the first set, the Indians hitting back after Kubot and Matkowski had breached through in the fifth game.
Paes and Bopanna again broke through in the seventh game but the Poles hit back immediately. With Kubot serving rocks, Poland then held to make it 5-4. The tenth game turned out to crucial and with the Poles raising their levels and with Paes a touch too slow, Bopanna’s serve was broken as India conceded the first set in 32 minutes.
The Indians were very much in the game in the second set and seemed well poised to level the match when they broke Kubot’s serve in the 11th game to lead 6-5, the big man obliging with a double fault on breakpoint. But Bopanna, serving for the set, could not capitalise and the Poles hit back fiercely to take the set to a tie-break.
Indians had a set point at 6-5 in the tie-break, with Kubot starting to wilt in the heat. He however, pulled himself together to find his range and power again, forcing an error out of Bopanna on match point to trigger celebrations in the Polish camp.
While Paes packs his bags, Bopanna remains in the hunt in mixed doubles with Sania Mirza.