Paes-Cara lose final to American wild cards

Leander Paes talks to his partner Cara Black of Zimbabwe during the mixed doubles championship against Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrott of the United States, at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York on Thursday.

Leander Paes will have to wait for his 10th Grand Slam title as the Indian and his partner Cara Black failed to defend their US Open mixed double crown, suffering a shock 2—6, 4—6 defeat at the hands of local wild cards Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrott here on Thursday.

Cara proved a weak link in the Indo-Zimbabwean combo as all she could do was play some feeble shots.

She failed to make any impact as not even once she held her serve in the final match, which lasted just 66 minutes.

Paes and Cara struggled to find their touch as numerous unforced errors flew from their racquets while their rivals played a fascinating game, especially at the net.

Thanks to brilliance of Paes, the second seeds saved a match point in the eighth game of the second set and also got their first and only break in the match.

Carly was serving for the match but Paes played an amazing cross court winner to earn that break.

The Indian then held her serve in the game to narrow the lead to 4—5 but by then it was too late as Travis served out the match in the 10th game.

Paes still can return with a title from the US Open if he and Czech Lukas Dlouhy win their men’s doubles final against Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.