Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi suffered a shock quarter-final defeat in the men's doubles event of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on Tuesday.

The second seeded Indo-Belarussian pair lost to the French pair of Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra, the fifth seeds, 3-6, 4-6.

Bhupathi was partnering Mirnyi for the first time this year.

He had earlier partnered Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in a first round defeat at the Tata Open ATP Tour event in Chennai for the season opening event.

Ironically, Bhupathi, world ranked 4 in the Doubles Entry System, had won an ATP doubles title with Santoro in the lead up to the year's first Grand Slam.

Having lost the mixed doubles race with Elena Likhovtseva earlier, an Australian Open title continues to elude Bhupathi.