Bhupathi-Malisse crash out of French Open

PARIS: Mahesh Bhupathi and his Belgian partner Xavier Malisse's campaign in the men's doubles event came to an end as they crashed out of the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 2-6, 1-6 loss against the 15th seed Romanian-German pair of Andrei Pavel and Alexander Waske in the French Open on Monday.

The unseeded Indo-Belgian pair failed to seize the momentum after winning the first set and completely lost the plot against their opponents, who managed to recover after being a set down to move into the semifinals.

Bhupathi and Malisse, who beat the Swiss duo of Yves Allegro and Stanislas Wawrinka in their third round match, started off aggressively as they raced away with the opening set after leading 5-1.

However, the duo failed to capitalise on the good start, which allowed Pavel and Waske to come back into the match. The Romanian-German pair regained their composure in the second set and led 4-2 before sealing it off 6-2.

Having lost the initial grip, Bhupathi and Malisse struggled in the decider and managed to win just one point as Pavel and Waske capped their remarkable comeback by winning the set and the match.