It was a major setback for the Indian tennis contingent at the Rio Olympics as veteran tennis player Leander Paes and his partner Rohan Bopanna lost 4-6, 6-7 (6) to the Polish duo of Lukaz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski in the men’s doubles event on Saturday.
In the match that lasted an hour and 40 minutes, Paes and Bopanna were broken four times in the match including a disappointing three times in the first set. Paes and Bopanna lost the first set 4-6 and tried to put up a fight in the second, but eventually lost 6-7 by the tie-breaker in the second.
The duo never looked like a team as Paes arrived in Rio only on the morning of August 4. He later had to quash allegations of him coming late and refusing to share a roomwith Bopanna. India’s hopes now reside on the women’s pairing of Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare and the mixed doubles comprising of Bopanna-Mirza which gets underway later in the tournament. Unfortunately for Paes, his Olympics has come to an end.
