French Open: Bopanna in third round, Paes crashes out

Indian star Rohan Bopanna and his Uruguayan partner Pablo Cuevas survived a tough three-set battle to enter the third round of the men's doubles competition at the French Open tennis tournament here on Friday.

The ninth seeds were made to sweat by the unseeded duo of Dennis Istomin of Uzbekistan and Treat Huey of the Philippines before notching up a 5-7, 7-6, 6-4 victory following a gruelling encounter that stretched over two hours and 14 minutes.

Bopanna and Cuevas were off to a poor start, conceding the first set before staging a strong comeback to win the next two sets.

But it was a disappointing day for veteran Indian star Leander Paes who crashed out of both the men's doubles and the mixed doubles.

Paes and his American partner Scott Lipsky crashed out following a straight sets loss in the second round of the men's doubles event.

The unseeded Indo-US combination produced a strong fight in the opening set before going down 7-6, 6-2 to the Spanish pair of David Marrero and Tommy Robredo in one hour and 31 minutes.

Paes saw his campaign in the mixed doubles category come to an end as well.

The 1996 Olympics bronze medallist and his partner Martina Hingis suffered a 4-6, 6-1, 2-10 defeat at the hands of the sixth seeded pair of Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Raven Klaasen of South Africa in their first round .

The unseeded Indo-Swiss pair did reasonably well over the hour long encounter, but were let down by some poor serves in the tie-breaker.

--IANS

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