India witnessed a mixed outing in the men's doubles event of the French Open as Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna crashed out in the first round even as veteran Leander Paes and his Austrian partner Jurgen Melzer eased into the next stage, in Paris.
Somdev Devvarman and partner Treat Huey Conrad qualified for the men's doubles at Wimbledon, taking the number of Indians competing in the competition to five. Somdev and his Philippines' partner Conard stunned top seeds from Poland Tomasz Bednarek and Mateusz Kowalczyk 7-6(8), 7-5 in the second and final round of the qualifying event, on Thursday night.
Indian tennis stars enjoyed a successful start in the US Open as veteran Leander Paes entered the mixed doubles second round while Rohan Bopanna also won his opening tie in the men's doubles event in New York.
Second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi survived a scare before diffusing the challenge of Mahesh Bhupathi and Denis Istomin in the quarter-finals of the ATP 500 Dubai Duty Free Championships on Thursday.
Maldini, an ace defender, who donned the Italian national team colours 126 times, made his AC Milan debut in 1985, and played his last Serie A match in May 2009.