London, November 24: Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy’s chances of making the knockout stage of the ATP World Tour Finals’ doubles event suffered a jolt after they were handed a straight-set defeat by debutants Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach in their opening Group B match here.
The fourth-seeded Indo-Czech pair went down 3-6 6-7 (3) to the sixth seeded Polish-Austrian rivals in their opening match and will now be up against second seeds Bob and Mike Bryan of Unites States, who also started their campaign on a disappointing note, losing 4-6 4-6 to seventh seeds Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram.
In a 92-minute contest, both the teams fought hard with many players taking body blows ? including one in the throat for the 36-year-old Paes.
–PTI