Bhupathi-Miryni fall
by the wayside

Indian tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus bowed out of the men's doubles competition at Wimbledon, losing their quarter-final match on Tuesday.

Seeded third in the tournament, they lost to the fifth-seeded pair of Todd Woodbridge of Australia and Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 2-6, 3-6, 4-6.

The fifth seeds and last year's Australian Open doubles champions Woodbridge and Bjorkman had no problems against the third seeds. They began strongly, breaking Mirnyi's service game to take a quick 3-0 lead before winning the first set 6-2.

In the second set, they again got an early service break off Mirnyi serve. At 4-1, Mirnyi's service was under threat again. But he and Bhupathi had a remarkable rally of volleys which helped them save the game and take the score to 4-2.

Just two games later, play was suspended because of rain. Returning to court after the rain delay, Woodbridge and Bjorkman served out the second set at 6-3.

In the third set, Bhupathi and Mirnyi seemed to find some touch. At 4-4, however, they were once again broken, and Woodbridge served to win the match in the next game.