Paes-Bhupathi upset in first round

French Open champions Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi bowed out of the $2.95 million Masters Series being played at Montreal, losing in the first round.

The Indian duo, seeded seventh in the tournament, lost to the unseeded American pair of Scot Humphries and Alex O'Brien 3-6, 6-3, 3-6.

Paes and Bhupathi were playing together after their early exit from Wimbledon three weeks back.

In the first set, the Indians were broken in the fifth game and the Americans raced to take the set at 6-3.

The Indians started the second set losing serve in the first game. But they came back strongly to break the Americans in the second and fourth games to take the set at 6-3.

In the third set, the Indians faced some resistance in the second game but held after a deuce to go 1-1. They had a break chance in the third game, but could not convert it. Hereafter, games went with serve. The Indian pair was in trouble in the fifth game, when they made a mess of things at 30-0. They lost five of the next six points and dropped serve to fall behind at 2-4. They did have a chance to come back in the next game, when they had two break chances, but wasted them. The Americans went on to take the match thereafter.

The Indians will now be playing at the Cincinnati Masters next week. They have never done well at this event and it will be tough for them to stage a return from there.