Indians crash out in Olympic tennis

Paes, the 1996 Atlanta Games bronze medallist, was afirst round casulty in the men’s singles on Wednesday – losing 2-6 4-6 to Sweden’s Mikael Tillstrom.

The Woodies, defending Olympic doubles champions and bidding for second title with Woodbridge retiring from the active tennis by the year end, poured their heart out to get this win.

They eased through to the first set breaking Indianstwice on way to 6-3 win before Paes and Bhupathi stretched them to the distance in the second, but the tie-breaker was a one-sided affair (7-1).

After all the hoopala rushing them here from differentrts of the world, the Indian pair of Nirupama and Manisha suffered the ultimate humiliation going down in straight sets without taking a game against teenager Dokic and her senior partner Stubbs.

In the first round match that was over in just 35minutes, the Indian girls could manage just 18 points in the entire match – seven in the first set and 11 in the second.

Nirupama would be leaving Australia with mixed feelingsas in this very country, in Melbourne, she became the first Indian woman player to get past the first round in a Grand Slam event when she achieved the distinction in the 1998 Australian Open.