Paes-Damm pair bows out of Oz Open

Melbourne, Jan 21 (UNI) Fifth seeds Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm crashed out of the Australian Open men's doubles event following a shocking 5-7, 6-7 (7) third round loss to the unseeded French duo of Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut here today.

Benneteau and Mahut outlasted the fifth seeds in the more than two hour long match to set up a third round clash with fourth seeds Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett.

Paes and Damm failed to break their rivals even once in the match and were caught offguard by their rivals who capitalised on their mistakes.

The fifth seeds were broken in the first set and committed three unforced errors as the frenchmen battled for close to an hour to clinch the opener.

Rattled by the first set loss, Paes and Damm tried to force their way back into the match in the second set but lost steam in the tie breaker.

In an engrossing decider lasting over an hour, both the pairs held their serve and though Benneteau and Mahut committed several unforced errors, they managed to get the better of the Indo-Czech pair in the tie-breaker.

Later in the day, Paes will again take to the court with Samatha Stosur of Australia and the third seeded pair will take on Yuves Allegro of Switzerland and Elena Bovina of Russia in the first round of mixed doubles event.

UNI