It was not to be. The top-seeds and overwhelming favourites for the gold medal, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes were dealt a straight-set semifinal dismissal by Australians Peter Luczak and Paul Hanley on Friday. What hurt more was the manner of their ouster, a succinct 6-2, 6-2 spanking in 74 minutes.
Making the day easier on India, Somdev Devvarman bounded like a jackrabbit into the men's singles final with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Matt Ebden of Australia. His metronomic proficiency from the baseline made short work of the third-seed, who stuck to his backfiring guns of beating Devvarman at his own game, only to fail miserably.
Nine double-faults
Sania Mirza made the women's final as well, and her transit was a rallying lurch across nine double-faults and Australia's Olivia Rogowska. For 30 minutes Mirza did not hold serve, looked ragged, and trailed 6-1, 3-1 before the pieces started to fall in place.
She broke Rogowska for 2-3, glued together a series of service games, and notched another break in the ninth game to nail the second set 6-4.
With a curiously calm husband and a hyperventilating father for support in the stands, Mirza opened the decider by destroying Rogowska's serve to love.
Another break in the fifth game gave Mirza the leeway of losing her serve one more time, a cushion she made full use of when serving for the match at 5-2. But three matchpoints at 5-4 were too much to quander, even for someone as erratic on serve as her.
Consistence personified
Earlier, Devvarman was consistence personified from the backcourt, as he wrapped up his semifinal against Ebden in 70 minutes. An extra break in the first set and two in the second gave Devvarman his walking papers into the final, where his rival will be Greg Jones.
India received another blow in men's doubles when Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna lost their semifinal to England's Ross Hutchins and Kenneth Skupski after being a set up. The 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 loss, however, ensured a bronze for India, as the contest for that medal will be between two Indians pairs.
In women's doubles, Nirupama Sanjeev and Poojashree Venkatesha lost 7-5, 3-6, 5-7 to Australia's Jessica Moore and Rogowska in the semifinal.
