New partnerships fail
for Paes, Bhupathi
Shailesh Soni
The dynamic duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi might be invincible when playing together, but certainly not when they are apart. Both lost their first round doubles matches at the $50,000 King's Cup Thailand Open tennis at the Muang Thong Thani Complex, in Bangkok, on Wednesday.
Paes, partnering Mustafa Ghouse, went down to top seeds Dennis Golovanov of Russia and Vadim Kutsenko of Uzbekistan 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, while Mahesh Bhupathi and Thai veteran Vittaya Samrej lost 6-2, 6-4 to German Frank Moser and South Korean Lee Hyung-taik.
In the singles, Bhupathi will face seventh seed Martin Verkerk of the Netherlands in the second round on Thursday.
In the women's section, Sai Jayalakshmi also crashed out of the $25,000 Queen's Cup Thailand Open.
Jayalakshmi lost to eight seeded Dominika Luzarova of the Czech Republic 3-6, 3-6 in a second round match. Luzarova, ranked 370 in the world, played an impressive baseline game to beat the Indian.
Earlier, Jayalakshmi had defeated wildcard Chin-Bee Khoo of Malaysia 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in her first round match.
In the doubles, second seed Manisha Malhotra and Mi-Ra Jeon of Korea defeated Yiliana Fedak of Ukraine and Irina Kornienko of Russia 6-2, 6-4 in the first round.
The duo now will face the wildcard Thai pair of Wilawan Choptang and Napaporn Tongsalee in the quarter-finals.
Related report:
Paes crashes, Bhupathi advances
Paes, Bhupathi for Thailand Open
