An aggravated calf muscle injury forced Mahesh Bhupathi [Images] to withdraw from the semi-finals of the French Open mixed doubles, ending the Indian challenge at the clay-court Grand Slam in Paris on Thursday.
Bhupathi and partner Jie Zheng of China gave a walkover to the top-seeded pair of Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic in the last-four match, as the Indian was not 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-finals on Tuesday.
According to reports, playing in the semis might have cost the 34-year-old pro the entire summer, including Wimbledon and the Beijing [Images] Olympics [Images].
Bhupathi, who played alongside Mark Knowles of the Bahamas, lost in the first round of the men's doubles while another Indian, Leander Paes [Images], and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy went down in the third round.
Paes and Nadia Petrova of Russia [Images] lost to Bhupathi and Zheng in the first round of the mixed doubles.
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