Paes-Dlouhy bows out of Cincinnati Masters

Cincinnati, Aug 2 (UNI) India's Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy fought bravely but their challenge was just not enough as they were ousted from the 2,615,000 dollars Cincinnati Masters tournament here.

Seeded sixth in the tournament, the Indo-Czech pair was handed a 6-7 (6) 6-7 (5) in the quarterfinals by the the second seeded pair of Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in a gruelling battle that lasted one and a half-hour.

The match became completely unpredictable as both the pairs were not ready to give away even a single point without fighting it out. In the first set, both Paes and Dlouhy (two) and their opponents (three) successfully saved all the break points that came their way.

Finally, Nestor and Zimonjic managed to win the see-saw tie-breaker and won the next set too after both the pairs dropped their serve once before the tie-breaker to adavance in to the next stage.

Meanwhile, another Indian in the fray, Mahesh Bhupthi along with Mark Knowles advanced in to the semi-final stage with a hard-fought win American wildcards Mardy Fish and John Isner.

The Bhupathi-Knowles duo overpowered the Americans' challenge as they defeating them 7-5 6-7(5) 12-10 in the quarterfinal yesterday to book a clash with top seeded Bryan brothers of America.

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