Paris: Mahesh Bhupathi’s campaign in men’s doubles was cut short in the first round of the French Open even though his estranged partner Leander Paes with Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic, advanced to the second round.

Fourth seeds Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahama could not do justice to their reputation as they went down 4-6, 4-6 to the unseeded Austrian Stephen Huss of Austria and his German partner, Ross Hutchins.

Ninth-seeded pair of Paes and Dlouhy, however, did not lower guard against unheralded Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana and beat the Thai twin 6-2, 6-4 to move to the next round.

The second set, however, was not exactly a stroll in the park for the Indo-Czech duo who let a break point slip through their fingers before breaking their opponent to win the match in just over an hour.

In contrast, nothing went right for Bhupathi and Knowles. After losing the first set in 48 minutes, Bhupathi and Knowles were expected to raise their game but the seasoned campaigners could not break their rival’s serve even once and, on the contrary, were broken once to go down following an 85-minute fight.

The Paes and Dlouhy dyad would now meet the winner of the first round where the Tomas Behrend and Tomas Cibulec pair meets Jose Acasuso and Sebastian Prieto.

Rohan Bopanna is the other Indian in the fray in men’s doubles where he teams up with Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi and faces top-seeded American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan in a difficult first round outing. (PTI)