Paes-Martin halted in second round of French Open

Paris, June 2 (UNI) Leander Paes and Martin Damm's scratchy performance at the Roland Garros came to a premature halt as the seasoned pair failed to get past unseeded German duo of Michael Kohl mann and Rainer Schuettler to crash out in the doubles second round of the French Open here.

After an ordinary first round win, the third seeded Indo-Czech pair lost 3-6, 6-1 and 3-6 against their lower-ranked rivals.

Paes and Damm showed their class as they rallied back to win the second game, handing their opponents a 6-1 drubbing after losing the first. But both could not sustain the momentum when it mattered most as their rivals held their nerves to win the third set and the game to book a third round berth.

Even after converting two break points out of five compared to their rivals' two out of eight, Paes and Damm had to pay dearly for committing more unforced errors. The Indo-Czech pair won 69 per cent of their first serves to the rivals' 74 per cent.

Earlier in the first round, Paes and Damm survived anxious moments to just about squeeze past the local duo of Jeremy Chardy and Jonathan Eysseric 7-6(4), 7-6(2).

UNI