Paris: An aggravated calf muscle injury forced Mahesh Bhupathi to withdraw from the semi-finals of the French Open mixed doubles event, ending Indian challenge at the clay court Grand Slam on Thursday.

Bhupathi and his partner Jie Zheng of China gave walkover to the top-seeded pair of Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic in the last-four stage match, when the Indian could not be match-fit till the last moment.

The ace doubles player had injured his calf muscle earlier this summer and aggravated it further during the quarter final tie on Tuesday.

According to reports, the 34-year-old Bangalore-based pro was struggling to even walk and pushing himself in the semis could have cost him the entire summer, which includes his favourite Grand Slam Wimbledon and the Beijing Olympics.

Bhupathi, who played alongside Mark Knowles of Bahamas, had lost in the first round of the men’s doubles event while another Indian Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy went down in the third round.

Paes and Nadia Petrova of Russia had lost to Bhupathi and Zheng in the first round of the mixed doubles.

(AGENCIES)