Leander Paes [Images] and Mahesh Bhupathi [Images] frittered away chances galore before being handed a stunning straight sets defeat by the unseeded Croat-Austrian pair of Mario Ancic and Jurgen Melzer in the final of Ordina Open in s'Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands on Saturday.
The second seeded Indians, who were aiming for their first ATP title together in four years, went down 6-7 (5), 3-6 in little over an hour's time.
A win today would have given the former world number ones their 24th title together and a 23-9 lifetime record in ATP finals.
Off the blocks aggressively, Bhupathi and Paes broke Ancic and Merzel in the second game before racing to a 4-1 lead less than 15 minutes into the match.
The Indians earned a couple of break points in the sixth game as well but frittered away both, which perhaps marked the turning point of the match.
The second seeds paid for the lapse with Ancic and Merzel breaking them in the very next game to make it 4-4 before eventually taking the set into a tie-breaker.
Ancic and Melzer held their nerves, leading 5-2, before sealing the tie-breaker 7-5.
The Indians were on the back-foot in the second set as well losing their serve in the fourth game.
Ancic and Merzel were simply unstoppable thereafter and took a little more than 20 minutes to wrap up the set in their favour and clinch the title.
This was the first of the two ATP events that Bhupathi and Paes will play together as build-up to the Olympics [Images]. The estranged duo last title win together was at the 2004 Rogers Masters in Toronto.
Paes, who celebrated his 35th birthday on Tuesday, is a two-time former champion at the Ordina Open event, winning in 1999 and 2006, while the 34-year-old Bhupathi was making his debut in the event.
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