
In a major upset, French Open champions India's Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic crashed out of the Wimbledon men's doubles even as Sania Mirza and Chia-Jung Chuang battled hard to make it to the second round in women's doubles, here Thursday.
Paes and his Czech partner went down to the unseeded US pair of James Blake and Mardy Fish 4-6, 4-6, 3-6 that brought an end to their campaign in the first round itself.
However, there was some cheer for India as Sania and her Chinese Taipei partner defeated Americans Jill Craybas and Carly Gullickson 6-4, 6-2 following a 79-minute battle.
Lot was expected from Paes and Dloughy after their triumph in the French Open early this month.
However, the third-seeded Indo-Czech duo failed to match their American opponents and went down in one hour 49 minutes.
The third-seeds paid for 11 double faults and 12 unforced errors compared to their rivals' one.
They also converted just three of the 19 breakpoints while Blake and Fish's converted six of the 12.
Sania and Chuang faced stiff competition from unseeded Craybas and Gullickson in the first set.
The 15th seeded Indo-Taipei pair had to wait till the eighth breakpoint of the fourth game to get their first break.
The Americans saved seven back-to-back breakpoints but the effort wasn't enough against their equally unrelenting rivals.
However, the compliment was returned in the next game as Americans converted their second chance.
Sania and Chuang were, however, unfazed and broke their rivals at love in the sixth game to get back the lead.
... contd.