Paris: India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes crashed out of the Paris Masters tennis tournament after losing to Mexico’s Santiago Gonzalez and Christopher Kas of Germany 6-3 1-6 8-10 in the second round of the event here on Wednesday.
Fourth seed “Indian Express” duo, who got a bye in the first round, made a good start to their campaign as they got 76 per cent of their first serve right as compared to just 39 per cent of their opponents.
They also capitalised on the two break points they got, converting one of those in their favour to comfortably ran away with the set 6-3.
But thereafter, the Indians lost the plot completely and started to lose points at key junctures, letting the Mexican-German pair take advantage of their lapses and win the set 6-1.
In the deciding set, none of the pairs spared an inch and took it to the tie-breaker. But in the end, Gonzalez and Kas had the last laugh as they managed to steal the set 10-8.
Paes and Bhupathi have already qualified for the season ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.
Berdych beats Verdasco to advance : Tomas Berdych is just one win away from securing a berth in the ATP World Tour Finals after beating Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-3, 7-5 in the second round of the Paris Masters on Tuesday.
The 2005 Paris champion won five straight games in the first set to rally from a 3-1 deficit, hitting 12 winners to only three for Verdasco.
Berdych then broke the Spaniard twice for a 5-2 lead in the second set but wasted four match points to let Verdasco level at 5-5.
Yet, the fifth-seeded Czech broke Verdasco again with a forehand pass before clinching victory with a crosscourt backhand winner.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-4, and Andy Roddick downed Julien Benneteau of France 6-4, 6-4 to also move into the third round.
The sixth-seeded Tsonga will automatically secure a spot for the ATP tour finals in London by winning his next match. Roddick made only 12 unforced errors compared to 25 for Benneteau.
The 13th-seeded American hit a forehand return winner followed by a running forehand winner down the line to take the first set.
The 2003 U.S. Open champion rallied from 3-1 down in the final set to convert his first match point with a backhand volley.
Roddick can no longer qualify for the tour finals but he can still end the year in the top 10. The last time Roddick failed to finish a season in the top 10 was 2001.
Meanwhile, Feliciano Lopez of Spain, Ivan Dodig of Croatia, Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, Jeremy Chardy of France and John Isner of the U.S. won their first-round matches. (Agencies)