Paes-Navratilova lose
in second round

Leander Paes and Martina Navratilova crashed out of the mixed doubles event losing their second round match to South African Robbie Koenig and Belgium's Els Callens at the US Open on Tuesday.

Paes and Navratilova went down 6-7(5-7), 4-6.

The two teams began with patience and consistency and held their first service games. But in the fifth game, Koenig had his service broken, allowing the Indo-American pair to take 3-2 lead.

The Indian was at his best on the net, hammering volleys and overheads out of his opponents' reach. As the set continued, Paes began to struggle with his first serve, and Navratilova was unable to compensate, allowing Koenig and Callens to clinch the first set in a 7-5 tiebreaker.

In the second set, the Indo-American pair came back strongly, taking a 3-2 lead. The duo improved their service, which helped them maintain an edge over South African's.

But Koenig and Callens responded with equally strong play, winning the eighth game to tie it at four games apiece, and then breaking Navratilova's service to capture a 5-4 lead.

Koenig served-off the tenth game to book a place in the quarterfinals.

Earlier in the first round, the duo had an upset win over the top-seed pair of Rennae Stubbs and Todd Woodbridge of Australia 7-6 (7/4), 7-5.