The Czech Republic's Frantisek Cermak and Slovakia's Michal Mertinak became the latest players to be banned and fined for betting on tennis matches, the ATP said on Monday. As the governing body of men's tennis continues to crack down on gambling in the sport, the two Eastern European doubles specialists became the first non-Italians to be sanctioned under the ATP's anti-corruption programme.
Fourth seeds Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy crashed out of the Miami Masters after a shocking straight sets defeat at the hands of the unseeded Czech-Slovak pair of Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak in the men's doubles second round. The Indo-Czech combine went down 3-6, 3-6 in the just over an hour. In a match that was surprisingly lop-sided, the fourth seeds were left to rue missed opportunities, as they frittered away three break-points in the first set itself.
Rafael Nadal made a successful comeback after a seven-month injury absence with victory in the first round of the Chilean Open doubles on Tuesday.
India's challenge at the Australian Open came to a grinding halt after Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi crashed out of the mixed doubles after losing their respective quarter-final matches in contrasting fashion in Melbourne on Thursday.
Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden became the first locals to win a main draw Australian Open title since 2005 when they clinched the mixed doubles on Sunday.
Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek outplayed Daniele Bracciali and Frantisek Cermak in straight sets to storm into final of the ATP Japan Open in Tokyo.
Leander Paes and Sania Mirza, along with their respective partners, crashed out of the mixed doubles event at the US Open after losing in the quarter-finals in New York.
India's challenge in the mixed doubles ended on Thursday when the pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza was knocked out in the opening round at the US Open.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi advanced to the semi-finals while Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi sealed a quarter-final berth in the Valencia Open.
Third seeds Leander Paes and Jurgen Melzer of Austria battled their way into the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, beating Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi on Friday. Paes-Melzer lost the first set, but fought back brilliantly against the younger Indo-Pak combination to win the quarter-final 6-7(6), 7-6(6), 10-4.
Champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic lost all hope of defending their ATP World Tour Finals doubles title on Tuesday when they suffered their second successive round-robin defeat at the O2 Arena.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles enhanced their semi-final chances at the ATP World Tour finals after edging past Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in a tough group B encounter in London on Tuesday.
Third seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles opened their campaign at the ATP World Tour Finals on a resounding note, notching up a straight-set win over debutants Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak in their first group A doubles match in London.
Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy had little trouble in making the third round of the men's doubles at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday. The fourth seeds beat the unseeded Italian-Croat pairing of Fabio Fognini and Ivan Ljubcic 6-3, 6-4 in a second round match.
They comprehensively outplayed the Czech pairing of Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl in straight sets on Sunday.
The Indian pair first stunned the second seeded US-Swedish pair of Lisa Raymond and Simon Aspelin 6-3, 2-6, 10-7 in the second round to enter the quarter-finals, and then advanced a round further thanks to a walkover from their quarter-final opponents, seventh seeds Kveta Peschke and Martin Damm, who had beaten Galina Voskoboeva and Frantisek Cermak 6-1, 6-1 in their second round match.
The Indo-French pair broke no sweat in defeating Vania King of the US and Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic 6-2 6-0 in their opening encounter at Roland Garros on Friday.
Bhupathi and Paes are in the separate half of the draw and may face each other in the final.
Leander Paes and Nathalie Dechy beat Simon Aspelin-Meghann Shaughnessy while Mahesh Bhupathi and Martina Hingis got the better of Jonas Bjorkman and Lisa Raymond.
The Indian ace won his men's doubles and mixed doubles matches at the french Open on Saturday.
The pair beat the Czech Republic duo of Frantisek Cermak/Leos Friedl in the semi-finals.
Marin Cilic beat Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets to win a second successive Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Sunday.
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