Bhupathi-Stepanek crashes out of semis at French Open

Paris, June 7 (UNI) Mahesh Bhupathi's dreams of winning the third Doubles title at Roland Garros came to a screeching halt as he and Czech partner Radek Stepanek lost in straight sets 3-6, 4-6 in today's semi-final clash against sixth seeds Mark Knowles (Bahama) and Daniel Nestor (Canada) here.

Bhupathi and Stepanek could not continue their momentum when it mattered most, allowing their higher-ranked opponents to take the upper hand right from the beginning.

As many as five double faults against none committed by Knowles and Nestor dashed any chance they had of making a match out of it.

The first set lasted a little over half an hour and although the Indo-Czech duo fared slightly better in the second set, it was simply not enough as they were handed a 4-6 verdict to dash their hopes of a final berth.

Bhupathi and Stepanek allowed their rivals to break them twice while they managed none.

In the one hour and nineteen minutes battle, Knowles and Nestor won a overwhelming 84 per cent of their first serve compared to the Indo-Czech pairs' 66 per cent.

Yesterday, Bhupathi and Stepanek entered the men's doubles semi final by stunning second seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi.

Compatriot Leander Paes' campaign came to an end yesterday with a Mixed Doubles quarter-final defeat after already crashing out of his favourite Doubles competition in the second round itself.

Bhupathi and Czech Republic's Stepanek upset Sweden's Bjorkman and Belarussian Mirnyi 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) in the quarterfinals.

Bhupathi was bidding to win his 11th Grand slam title and his third French Open Doubles. The last time he got his hands on the Double trophy at Roland Garros was way back in 2001 when he and Paes defeated the Czech combo of Petr Pala and Ravel Vizner 7-6, 6-3.

Bhupathi has never won the French Open doubles title withour Paes.

UNI