Bhupathi-Knowles pair bows out

NEW DELHI, MAY 20. The eighth-seeded Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles lost to wildcard entrants Lleyton Hewitt and Patrick Rafter 6-3, 4-6, 3-6 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $2.45 million Masters Series tennis tournament in Hamburg.

It was the second week in a row that the Indo-Bahamas pair ran into a tough team in the early rounds. Last week, Mahesh and Knowles had lost in the first round to Martin Damm of the Czech Republic and Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia in the Masters Series event in Rome. The latter went on to clinch the title.

Lleyton Hewitt and Patrick Rafter have threatened to do the same in Hamburg as they went on to beat another pair of wildcard entrants, Marc-Kevin Goellner and Michael Kohlmann of Germany 6- 2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

The German pair had made it easy for the Aussies, by putting out the top-seeded American combination of Alex O'Brien and Jared Palmer 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) in the pre-quarterfinals.

Interestingly, all the other three semifinalists are Australian teams. The Woodies - Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde - stepped closer to their 57th title by beating Lucas Arnold of Argentina and Jaime Oncins of Brazil 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.

Wayne Arthurs and Sandon Stolle, who had beaten Damm and Hrbaty in straight sets in the second round, beat seventh- seeded Jiri Novak and David Rikl of the Czech Republic 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 while Joshua Eagle and Andrew Florent downed qualifiers Roger Federer and Marc Rosset of Switzerland 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) in the quarterfinals.

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Section  : Sport
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