Davis Cup: Leander Paes tastes rare doubles defeat as Stepanek-Pavlasek win

New Delhi: After a string of memorable victories in mixed doubles, Leander Paes tasted a rare doubles defeat partnering Rohan Bopanna as Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek and Adam Pavlasek romped home 7-5 6-2 6-2 in their World Group play-off tie here at the DLTA complex on Saturday. The visitors, thus, took a crucial 2-1 lead.

Backed by a vociferous crowd, a higher-ranked Paes-Bopanna combo was the favourite to hand India the much-needed advantage in the tie, but the Czech pair was just too good for the Indians to handle.

Going into the match, the visiting team wasn't even sure on who would partner Stepanek. In fact, the Czech camp admitted that it was toss-up between Lukas Rosol and Pavlasek till the very end.

So when the Czechs fielded an unheralded Pavlasek – ranked No. 268 in doubles – with Stepanek, there were smiles all around the Indian camp. Both Paes and Bopanna decided to target the inexperienced Pavlasek right from the onset, but the 20-year-old Czech did his job commendably, keeping the ball in play and following his senior partner Stepanek's instructions.

And after two hours and 10 minutes, the youngest player in Czech camp played a big part in pulling off an unlikely victory to end India's hopes of beating No. 1 ranked team. For the record, in his first Davis Cup tie against Australia earlier this year, Pavlasek had defeated the likes of Lleyton Hewitt and Samuel Groth partnering Jiri Vesely.

The Czech pair played with a simple tactic – Pavlasek concentrated on net play and Stepanek stayed at the baseline – and that made a huge difference.

As far as the Indians were concerned, Bopanna's poor net play made the task for Paes – holder of 17 Grand Slam titles – all the more difficult. Pavlasek attacked Bopanna at the net with utmost ease, and managed to find gaps when Paes positioned himself for the volleys.

The Indians also committed a staggering 48 unforced errors as opposed to 30 by the Czechs. The visitors fired 39 winners, while the hosts could hit only 26.

Paes and Bopanna's lack of match practice as a team – they were playing together after a year – was visible in the defeat. It didn't begin on a bright note for the hosts, with Bopanna dropping serve in the fifth game. The Indians did fight hard to make things even at 5-5 after trailing 5-3, but Paes was again broken in the 11th game as the Czechs took a 6-5 lead. The Indian pair saved two set points but the Czechs took the first set when Paes hit Stepanek's serve wide.

After that, the Czechs never allowed Paes and Bopanna to come back into the game and completed blew them away in the second and third sets.

No Indian doubles match in recent history was as one-sided as this one. In fact, Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had a 24-match winning streak, which is still an Indian record.

The loss leaves Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri with a huge challenge of winning both their reverse singles games on Sunday if India are to re-enter in the 16-nation World Group.

DID YOU KNOW?

Paes tasted only his second Davis Cup doubles loss in 15 years. His previous defeat --- also with Bopanna --- was against Uzbekistan in 2012

It was also the first defeat for Paes in a home tie since 2000 when he and Syed Fazluddin lost to Lebanon's Ali Hamdeh and Jicham Zaatini in Lucknow.#dna