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Paes, Bhupathi falter at final hurdle in US Open

American Alex O'Brien and his Canadian partner Sebastien Lareau ended top seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi's hopes of winning their first US Open title today when they beat the Indian pair in straight sets 7-6 (9-7), 6-4.

Paes and Bhupathi, who made history yesterday when they entered the final of the men's doubles event, failed to live up to their top billing and crumbled fairly easily before the eleventh-seeded pair.

The result also dashed Bhupathi's hopes of emulating Paes and recording a double at a Grand Slam.

Paes had won both the men's doubles (with Bhupathi) and mixed doubles (with Lisa Raymond of the United States) at Wimbledon in July.

Yesterday, Bhupathi won the mixed doubles at the US Open in the company of Ai Sugiyama of Japan.

The men's doubles final began very much behind schedule today following incessant rain earlier in the day. The first set was fought closely and went into the tiebreak after each side broke the other once. But once the North Americans won the tie-break, the Indians appeared to crumble and lost the second set rather tamely, losing their serve twice and managing to break back just once.

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