New Delhi: The top seeded pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Robert Lindstedt made a shock first round exit from the Thailand Open while Somdev Devvarman crashed out of the Malaysian Open.
The Indo-Sweden pair of Bhupathi and Lindstedt lost 6-2 3-6 8-10 to Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain and Paolo Lorenzi of Italy in just 59 minutes.
It was Bhupathi's first tournament after US Open, where he was knocked in the first round along with German partner Philipp Petzschner.
The Indian challenge is still alive in the tournament as Leander Paes is also playing in the doubles event. Paes and his Italian partner Daniele Bracciali have been seeded second and they will open their campaign against James Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin.
Meanwhile, in Kuala Lumpur, Somdev lost his first round match to fellow qualifier Matteo Viola in straight sets.
The Indian lost 3-6 3-6 to his lower-ranked Italian rival after one hour and 15 minutes. While Somdev is ranked 98, Viola is 140 on the ATP ranking charts. It was first meeting between the two players.
Somdev's fifth double fault of the match handed Viola two match points. The Indian saved first but Viola converted second to set up a second round clash with world number four Spaniard David Ferrer.
In the doubles event of the Malaysian Open, Yuki Bhambri and his local partner Syed Naguib, Syed Mohd Agil also bowed out after a crushing 2-6 2-6 defeat against second seeds Julien Benneteau and Nenad Zimonjic, who are formidable doubles players.
Yuki had reached the doubles final of the Taiwan Challenger, last week.
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