There was a time Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi could come to a match, any match, and expect to be expected to win. Not today. When they were taken out of contention for a place in the semi-finals by Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka, the result tallied to Paes-Bhupathi’s form as well as a very personalised history.

In a match that began just before midnight on Thursday, was suspended in the early hours of Friday after a long rain delay, and then began in the afternoon under a sweltering Beijing blue sky, three breaks of service were more than enough to breeze the Swiss team through 6-2, 6-4. Paes-Bhupathi did not obtain even one break point.

There was not even a chance to turn the tide in their favour, said Paes later, just a lone half-chance. “The way they (Federer and Wawrinka) came out last night,” he said after the match, “it seemed they had spoken to someone who knows how to play us. Federer was playing so well.”

But when it’s Paes and Bhupathi, can questions of chemistry be hushed? Not today. Bhupathi reacted to suggestions that the old “chemistry” could not be seen: “It’s too bad, because we felt it.” Paes was more laconical and said he would not be drawn into discussions on atmospherics: “You saw what you saw, mate.”

The bottomline, said Bhupathi, was that they were up against the best player in the world and a guy with him holding out well. (Federer’s 1,659-day reign as world number ends on Monday, but Olympics result do not count in ATP rankings.)

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