Bhupathi-Stepanek lose in semis

Paris: Indian campaign at the French Open came to an end with Mahesh Bhupathi and his Czech comrade-in-arms Radek Stepanek bowing out of the men's doubles event with a straight set defeat against sixth seeds Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor in the semifinals here.

Bhupathi and Stepanek, who had pulled off a major upset by beating second seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in the quarter-final, came a cropper as Knowles and Nestor thumped them 6-3 6-4 in 79 minutes.

The Indo-Czech pair looked out of sorts against the seeded pair, known for their solid clay court game. Bhupathi and Stepanek never looked threatening and could not break their opponent even once in the entire match.

After losing the first set in just over half an hour, the much awaited fightback never materialised as Bhupathi and Stepanek merely delayed the inevitable before crashing out.

Their serve was a big let down in the second set also as they committed four double faults.

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