India's doubles pair of Leander Paes and Ramkumar Ramanathan was knocked out 6-2, 3-6, 4-10 by Swiss Luca Mragaroli and Hugo Nys from France at the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger in Pune.
Paes was broken in the eighth game of the second set as Ramkumar committed two unforced errors before the two were outplayed in the match tie-breaker. The defeat ended Paes’ 2016 season.
“That break changed the mentality. That made us defensive. Instead of punching the volleys and returns we started playing defensive which should not happen,” Paes said after the match. “But we need to keep the chin up,” he said adding that it took him a lot of time to console Ramkumar, who was crestfallen and even broke his racquet by banging it on the courts out of frustration.
However, the top-seeded Indian pair of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan stormed into the semifinals with a 7-6(0), 6-4 win over Popko and Marat Deviatiarov.
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