Leander Paes and Purav Raja, who joined forces recently, were knocked out of the men’s doubles following a close 4-6 6-7(7) defeat.
Indian tennis player Sania Mirza (Photo: AFP)
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna have reached the quarter-finals of their respective events at the US Open but the fledgling partnership of Leander Paes and Purav Raja has fallen flat yet again.
The fourth seeded Indo-Chinese pair of Sania and Shuai Peng overcame a stiff resistance from Sorana Cirstea and Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2 3-6 7-6(2) in the third round of the women’s doubles.
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In the mixed doubles, Bopanna and Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski, seeded seventh, quelled the challenge from Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Nicholas Monroe 6-3 6-4 in the second round.
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Paes and Raja, who joined forces recently, were knocked out of the men’s doubles following a close 4-6 6-7(7) defeat against the Russian pair of Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev in the second round.
They had teamed up first for the Winston-Salem Open, where they made a first round exit.
Raja has enjoyed some great results with compatriot Divij Sharan but loss of points and resultant slide in the rankings forced them to split to salvage the US Open.
They anticipated that their combined ranking would not have given them a direct entry in the last Grand Slam of the season, so Raja teamed up with Paes while Sharan joined hands with Andre Begemann.
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