Sports: Indian challenge ends at Wimbledon

London, July 8 : Curtains came down on Indian challenge at Wimbledon with the last man standing, Leander Paes and his American partner Meghann Shaughnessy losing to an unseeded French duo of Fabrice Santoro and Severine Bremond in a mixed doubles quarterfinal here.

The eighth seeded Indo-American pair squandered a set advantage to go down 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, courtesy an erratic service and a number of unforced errors.

The duo committed 17 unforced errors and four double faults as against 12 and two by the French.

Paes-Shaughnessy were off to a wonderful start sweeping aside their rivals in the first set. However, they could not sustain the momentum and the French pair bounced back hard taking the next two sets and the match to book a berth in the semi-finals.

Coincidentally, it was Fabrice Santoro who, along with Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, ousted Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm from the men's doubles event at the 121st Championships.

UNI