NEW DELHI, June 4: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi crashed out of the French Open doubles tennis semifinals to Mark Knowles (Bahamas) and Daniel Nestor (Canada) 1-6, 6-7 (6). This is the third straight Grand Slam semifinal they are losing since the 1997 US Open. Paes/Bhupathi got US$ 66,000 and 345 points.
According to information received here, in the other semifinal, top seeded Dutch pair Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis beat sixth seed Jonas Bjorkman and Patrick Rafter 6-2, 6-2. The pair will continue to be number one. Paes and Bhupathi will next play doubles at Queens, and then Wimbledon after which that they go separate ways coming together for doubles only at the Toronto Super 9 in early August.