A tenth Grand Slam title eluded Leander Paes on Sunday after he and his partner Cara Black went down in straight sets in the Wimbledon mixed doubles final to Mark Knowles and Anna-Lena Groenefeld. The top seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair, who were playing dominant tennis right up to the summit clash, lost 7-5 6-3 to the ninth seeds in an hour and 28 minutes.

Paes was on course to bag his third Wimbledon crown after grabbing a 5-2 lead in the first set, but unforced errors severely dented their chances. Paes and Black broke their opponents twice — in the fifth and seventh games — to race to a 5-2 lead. But Knowles and his German partner soon changed the complexion of the match by winning five consecutive games.

Knowles and Groenefeld continued their aggressive play and seized the initiative early in the second set, breaking Paes and then holding their own serve to take a 3-0 lead. From there on, the set went with serve and although Paes and Black tried hard to come back, it was not to be their day as their opponents put on a clinical performance to win their first mixed doubles Slam together.