Leander Paes' joy for Somdev Devvarman was offset by his doubles loss to Bjorn Phau and Rainer Schuettler in the Chennai Open last night.
Leander Paes' joy for Somdev Devvarman was offset by his doubles loss to Bjorn Phau and Rainer Schuettler in the Chennai Open last night. Paes and Lukas Dlouhy were upset 6-4, 2-6, 7-10 by the German duo in a thrilling three-setter.
Paes' mood was worsened by the chair umpire, who ruled two contentious calls in the super tie-break in the German pairing's favour. After the match, Paes confirmed that what he believed during the match was actually true.
"I have checked with the television crew and seen the replays. My forehand chip was half in, half out and their serve was 100 per cent out. Those were big calls. But at the end of the day we were beaten by a better team and we didn't lose only because of those two calls," he said.
Paes said that the match was in their grasp but slipped suddenly.
"As we were walking back in after the match, Lukas said, 'we just lost the match, like that'. We had it under control but the chance just vanished suddenly. You can't lose your focus for even a minute in sport," Paes said.
Earlier, Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles made it past Somdev and Prakash Amritraj, winning 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8).
