Rusty Indian Express lets country down, Chinese Taipei bt India 2-1

Doha, Dec 4 (UN1) A rusty and ill-prepared duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi let the country down as they caved in meekly to Yeu Tzuoo Wang and Yen Hsun Lu 2-6, 3-6 as India lost 1-2 to Chinese Taipei to crash out of the men's team event of the tennis competition at the Asian Games here today.

''I feel bad for the team, we were not well prepared for this match,'' said Paes after losing the tie.

Second seed Chinese Taipei took the encounter seriously as they feared the famed ''Indian Express'' which, however, got derailed even before the contest started.

India did not get a good start as Karan Rastogi lost to Yeu Tzuoo Wang 1-6, 3-6 in 67 minutes. But in the second singles, Rohan Bopanna staged a fine rally coming from behind after losing the first set to beat much higher ranked Yen Hsun Lu 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 in 138 minutes to make it 1-1 for India.

Bopanna played his role to perfection with the hope that his senior duo will get the side the winning lead, but the Busan Asian Games Gold medal-winning doubles pair put up such a dismal show that it even surprised their rivals.

It looked as if Paes and Bhupathi were not expecting Bopanna to win because they never had any warm up before the start of their match. Paes remained glued to his chair throughout the two singles.

To start the match at this level of competition without any warm up is a sign of either arrogance or it is the height of casualness.

The Indians went to play on the basis of their reputation and the Chinese Taipei duo took just 76 minutes to tear apart that reputation.

Paes and Bhupathi never clicked, they looked totally out of sync with each other. The two had arrived here a couple of days back but never had practice together and that showed in their display.

In fact, they had not played for the past two weeks due to injuries and thus were not fully ready for the battle.

Mahesh never held his serve in the two sets while Paes managed to hold on to a few. In the first set, Wang and Lu took a staggering 5-0 lead before the Indians managed to prevent the wash out. The set lasted 34 minutes.

It was slightly better show in the second set as Paes held on to his first serve but after that Bhupathi was broken. The Indians managed to break the rivals in the fourth and Paes held his serve but that was not enough to stop the Chinese Taipei pair from romping home in style.

''I am not happy the way we played, Boppana played well and he brought us back in the tie but we did not click,'' Paes said and added ''Hopefully we will do well in the open events.'' MORE UNI HSB PDS DB2028