Sport | Cricket
Paes-Dlouhy pairing to continue
Indo-Czech combination go down to the Bryan brothers from US in straight sets
- By Alaric Gomes, Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:00 November 27, 2009
London : India's Leander Paes and Czech Republic's Lukas Dlouhy will continue with their doubles pairing at least for another year.
"Yes, we will be together for 2010," Paes told media after going down in straight sets to Mike and Bob Bryan from the US.
That loss virtually sealed the Indo-Czech's fate of advancing to the knock-out semifinal stages at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals here. They have one last match remaining in Group B against Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram to be played today.
On Wednesday, the American twins broke Paes and Dlouhy in the fourth for a 3-1 lead and then went on to take the first set 6-3.
In the first set, Paes and Dlouhy had five aces compared to just one from the twins, who, in fact, had a cent per cent record of winning their first serve points.
No different
The second set was no different as the Bryans continued playing crisp and tight giving the Indo-Czech no chances to take it 6-4 and brighten their chances for this weekend's semifinals.
Asked to explain the dip in form, Paes admitted that he was surprised with their lack of rhythm despite being together as a pair for so long. "We've won two Grand Slams [French Open and the US Open] this year and it is a bit interesting that it's been a rough outing in the last two matches," the 36-year-old Indian admitted.
He, however, steered clear from making any speculations on the likely reasons behind the recent dip in form.
"We could put it down to many reasons, but at the end of the day it's something we need to go back to the drawing board and look at," Paes stated.
"Once we make it here next year, and hopefully we will do so, we need to come a little more prepared into the Masters," he added.
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