Leander Paes-Ramkumar Ramanathan pair knocked out in Pune

The biggest star of the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger, Leander Paes, bowed out along with young partner Ramkumar Ramanathan following a shock defeat yesterday

Leander Paes

Pune: The biggest star of the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger, Leander Paes, bowed out along with young partner Ramkumar Ramanathan following a shock defeat yesterday.

They were knocked out 6-2, 3-6, 4-10 by Swiss Luca Mragaroli and Hugo Nys from France.

Paes was broken in the eighth game of the second set as Ramkumar committed two unforced errors and after that they 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.

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