India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna came up short against Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau in the men's doubles final at the Western and Southern Open tennis tournament here on Sunday night
The sixth seeds lost 4-6, 4-6 to fourth seeded duo of Lindstedt and Tecau, who qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals with their first Masters 1000 Series crown, ATP website reported.
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Lindstedt and Tecau are the third team to qualify for the prestigious circuit finale, to be held Nov 5-12 at The O2 in London, joining Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan and Max Mirnyi/Daniel Nestor. The Swedish-Romanian pair made their World Tour Finals debut last year. Bhupathi and Bopanna were bidding to lift their second trophy of the season after winning the Dubai Open in February.
Bhupathi, a two-time Cincinnati titlist, fell to a 50-42 mark in tour-level finals and Bopanna to 8-13. In the final, Lindstedt and Tecau capitalised on three of their nine break points before closing out the 67-minute contest on serve. They had advanced to their second Masters 1000 final with victory over the top-ranked Bryan Brothers in the semi-finals.