New York:
India's Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam Qureshi crashed out of the US Open after going down fighting in the men's doubles first round contest at the Flushing Meadows here.
The 13th seeded pair, lost 6-7 (10-12), 6-4, 6-7 (5-7) to the unseeded Italian pair of Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi in a contest that lasted for more than two and half hours yesterday.
Bopanna and Qureshi send down as many as 11 aces but also double faulted nine times in the match. The Indo-Pakistan pair converted only four of the 13 break point chances.
After a edge-of-the-seat opening set which they lost narrowly, Bopanna and Qureshi managed to bounce back pocketing the second set in 39 minutes.
The third set turned out to be another nerve-wrecking affairs where the Italian pair managed to held on to their nerves in the end in the 56-minute ordeal.
Daniele and Andreas will next face the winner of the match between Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin and New Zealand's Michael Venus and Feliciano Lopez of Spain and Argentina's Juan Monaco.
