Bopanna-Ebden pair bows out of Paris Masters

Paris: Veteran Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden made a quarterfinal exit from the Paris Masters after suffering a hard-fought defeat in the men's doubles contest here.

The third seeded Indo-Australian duo toiled for one hour 46 minutes before going down 6-7, 5-7 to the Dutch-Croatian combo of Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic at the ATP 1000 event on Friday.

There was little separating the two pairs with the first set going into tiebreaker. Bopanna and Ebden had a a few chances but Koolhof and Mektic saved set points to win the tiebreak and take a 1-0 lead.

The second set was also closely well contested, but Bopanna and Ebden provided Koolhof and Mektic with a crucial break in the 12th game following a double fault.

Earlier this week, Bopanna and Ebden had clinched a spot in the prestigious season-ending ATP Finals.