Australian Open 2020: Leander Paes-Jelena Ostapenko bow out in second round

Tennis ace Leander Paes, in his final Australian Open appearance, bowed out in the second round of mixed doubles on Tuesday after losing in straight sets. Paes and his partner Jelena Ostapenko lost to Briton Jamie Murray and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 2-6, 5-7 to crash out from the year's first Grand Slam.

Murray and Mattek-Sands were always going to be tough opponents. After all, they had knocked out top seeds Marcelo Melo and Barbora Strycova 3-6 6-4 10-7 in their opening round. And in the first set against Paes-Ostapenko, they began with the same flurry that saw them trumping the first seeds the other day. Paes's serve was broken in the very first game and then again in the fifth game of the first set.

In the second set, though, the Indo-Latvian pair upped the ante as they looked to make a comeback, much like their first round match. However, at 5-5, Paes was broken again. Murray and Mattek-Sands did not let go off the opportunity and wrapped up the match 7-5.

Earlier, Paes and Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, had got a wildcard entry to the Australian Open mixed doubles draw. In the first round, they managed to come back from one-set down to edge out local wild cards entrants Storm Sanders and Marc Polmans 6-7(4) 6-3 10-6 in a clash that lasted one hour and 27 minutes.

Having announced that 2020 is his final year on the Pro circuit, this was the last time Paes took the court at the Australian Open. After the first round win, the 46-year-old had said in an interview with Indian Tennis Daily, "I played here first in 1989. All of this was different. This building was not even there. And I did the interviews on the outside. You know, I mean, you come from this court, 29, 19, 21, 22 from outside. There was a corridor, a ramp that came down. I was doing my interviews out there with the Richard Evans and all those guys, Neil Harmon’s, they were all young guys coming up and 1989 to now, that’s five decades. That’s a long time. But one day it will stop. And one day it will stop."