Australian Open: Leander Paes, Purav Raja lose in pre-quarters

File photo of Leander Paes and Purav Raja (Image: Twitter)

Melbourne: Veteran Leander Paes and Purav Raja on Sunday suffered a straight-set defeat at the hands of the Colombian pair of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the pre-quarterfinals to bow out of the Australian Open here.

The unseeded Indians were beaten 1-6, 2-6 by their 11th seeded opponents in a contest that lasted one hour and nine minutes at the Melbourne Park here.

Paes and Raja failed to capitalise on any one of the five break points — two in the first set and three in the second — they got in the match while the Cabal-Farah duo converted four out the 10 they had.

The Colombian duo broke the Indians twice in both the sets to easily grab the match and make it to the quarterfinals.

The Indian pair had shocked the formidable fifth seeds Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray in the second round but their game was not up to the mark on Sunday.

Paes and Raja, who won two Challenger-level titles to close the 2017 season, were playing in their second Grand Slam together.

At the 2017 US Open, they fell in the second round.

Paes has not featured in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event for more than a year. The last time 44-year-old Paes played a quarterfinal at a Grand Slam was in 2016 at French Open where he and Marcin Matkowski had lost to Mike and Bob Bryan.