Rio 2016 | Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna crash out in the first round

Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna have taken disproportionate attention space in the run-up to the Olympics. With Paes finally arriving on Thursday, all speculations were put to bed, and the duo even practiced a bit to ease into the zone. It is another matter that it is all a bit late as they have been playing with different partners in the run-up to the Games, and this was their first session together.

The duo faced Poland’s Marcin Matkowski & Lukasz Kubot - both Paes’ ex-doubles partners. While that means they know Paes’ game first-hand, Paes knows both of theirs - 2-1 even before the match had started.

However, the match was off to a yo-yo first set with the Polish pair bringing on a break point at 1-2. But, Paes and Bopanna saved it and made it 2-2. Then, they broke their opponents to make it 3-2 only to be broken back. Score 3-3.

After Paes and Bopanna made it 4-3, the Polish pair rattled off three straight games to take the first set.

The second set was again a neck-to-neck affair as the Polish pair went ahead at 5-4. Serving to stay in the tournament, the Indian pair won the game and then broke their opponents to make it 6-5. But, Matkowski and Kubot drew par to make it 6-6 and precipitate the tie-breaker.

The Indians went down 1-4 but clawed back to 4-4 and then brought up the set-point at 6-5. But they once again lost it as the Polish pair made two consecutive points to make it 7-6 and oust the Indians from the tournament.