Bhupathi's Australian Open campaign ends

Melbourne, Jan 24 (UNI) Mahesh Bhupathi and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek went down in straight sets to second seeds Swedish-Belarussian pair Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi 3-6, 2-6 at the quarterfinals of the Australian Open here today.

The Indo-Czech pair committed more double faults and failed to convert the break points regularly to hand the Bjorkman-Mirnyi pair an easy win in only 62 minutes.

Bhupathi and Stepanek could not continue their winning streak after upsetting seventh seeds Jonathan Elrich and Andy Ram 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3 to enter the quarterfinals.

With Bhupathi failing to book a semifinal berth in the Men's doubles today, the Indian's Australian Open campaign ends after he and Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova crashed out in the first round of the Mixed Dooubles to Serbian duo of Nenad Zimonjic and Jelena Jankovic.

UNI