 "French Open 2016: Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna lose in men's doubles quarters")
New Delhi: In a disappointing day for India, both Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna lost their respective men's doubles quarter-final matches in contrasting fashions at the 2016 French Open on Wednesday.
Taking on fifth-seeds, Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski forced the first set to a tie-breaker, only to lose 7(14)-6(12).
After that grueling first set, which lasted one hour and nine minutes, 16th seeds Paes and Matkowski succumbed 6-3 in the second set as the celebrated American twins – Mike and Bob Bryan won the match in straight sets.
Later, Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, went down rather timidly, losing 4-6, 4-6 to third seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcelo Melo of Brazil.
In the one hour 15 minute long match, the sixth seeded Indo-Romanian pair was broken once in each set.
With this double blow, India's doubles campaign at Roland Garros has ended. Women's doubles top seeds Mirza and Hingis already crashed out of the tournament.
However, Paes and his Swiss partner Martina Hingis — looking for their first French Open title together — will take on fifth seeds Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares for a place in mixed-doubles semi-finals.
In the same event, Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig will take on all-French team Alize Cornet and Jonathan Eysseric for a place in the quarters.
But Bopanna and his mixed-doubles partner Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia made an early exit.
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