Veteran Indian star Leander Paes and his German partner Andre Begemann crashed out of the men's doubles competition at the US Open tennis tournament with a first round loss to Stephane Robert of France and Dudi Sela of Israel here on Friday.
The Indo-German duo gave a tough fight before going down 6-2, 5-7, 4-6 in one hour and 59 minutes.
Robert and Sela will now take on Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Alexander Peya of Austria in the second round.
The 12th seeded Polish-Austrian team defeated Americans Eric Quigley and Nicolas Meister 7-6, 6-1 in their opening round encounter.
Paes and Begemann enjoyed a superb start, breaking their opponents in the very first game to gain the early advantage.
They broke their opponents again in the fifth to take a 4-1 lead and then held their serve to take the set.
The Indo-German combination grabbed the early initiative in the second set as well, forcing a break of serve in the third game to take a 2-1 lead.
The set then went with the serve which saw Paes and Begemann on the verge of taking the set with a 5-4 lead.
Robert and Sela however, staged a spirited comeback to earn a break of serve and level the scores at 5-5. They then held their serve before forcing another break to take the set and draw level.
In the third set, Paes and Begermann again earned a break in the opening game to take the early lead. Both teams held their serve thereafter before Robert and Sela broke their Indo-German opponents in the eighth game.
They held their serve in the next game to take the lead at 5-4 before another break of serve in the 10th game handed them the set and the match.
--IANS
ajb/vd
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