Rohan Bopanna (left) and Prakash Amritraj with the runners-up trophy in Chennai on Sunday. (AFP)

Chennai: Twenty four hours after performing a Houdini, Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna found themselves at the other end of the spectrum. Trailing by a set but up 5-0 in the second, the Indian wild cards lost seven games in a row to lose the Chennai Open doubles final 2-6, 5-7 to Petr Pala and Michal Mertinak on Sunday evening.

Turning the semi-final around from 5-9 in the super tie-break against second seeds Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske looked distant memory.

It was a fabulous week for the Indian Davis Cuppers, both winning a round each in singles and then having this dream run in doubles in their first ever ATP event as a team to earn close to $11,000 each. But it could have been even better had they not choked in the second set.

“It’s weird, I can’t really explain it,” Amritraj said on the second set slump. “I was already thinking of the super tie-breaker.”

The experienced Pala, a former French Open finalist with Pavel Vizner, said as much: “At 0-5, our mind was on the tie-break, I was thinking what we should be doing differently to win as the crowd would get behind them and make it difficult for us.”

The Indians had three break-points to go 2-0 up in the opening set, but Mertinak ? who played two matches in Slovakia’s losing Davis Cup final against Croatia last month ? escaped. Bopanna and Amritraj then surrendered serve and Pala-Mertinak were a set to the good in 22 minutes.

Amritraj fought off a break-point before the Indians hit a purple patch, turning everything they touched into gold. There were a couple of Bopanna return-Amritraj volley combinations which reminded the packed audience of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.

Before Pala and Mertinak knew, they were staring at a 0-5 deficit. To their credit, they didn’t offer the Indians a cheap point. Bopanna was the first to collapse, throwing up a double-fault and sending a forehand into the stands. Then Amritraj faltered on his serve, netting a simple forehand drive-volley before Mertinak hit a winning volley.

Serving at 5-5, Bopanna came up with another untimely double-fault at deuce. Pala served out the match without much fuss to ensure a cheque for $9300.