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Bhupathi-Knowles make early exit

Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles made an early exit from the $2.95 million Cincinnati tennis Masters series.

The Swedish pair of Thomas Johansson and Magnus Norman defeated them 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round.

The first set went as expected for Bhupathi and Knowles as they closed it out at 6-2 in 35 minutes, though the Swedes seemed to be fighting.

It then went with serve till the seventh game of the second set when Bhupathi and Knowles dropped serve to fall behind 3-4.The service break which happened too late in the set made it impossible for Bhupathi and Knowles to recover, and the match was soon tied at 6-2, 4-6.

In the third set, Bhupathi and Knowles went up a break in the second game, converting the first break chance after a deuce to go up 2-0. But it did not last long as Bhupathi and Knowles were broken in sucession for three service games, to fall back 2-5. The Swedes finished it off in style with a love game - and Bhupathi and Knowles had lost 10 of the last 13 games, dropping serve four times.

The match took an hour and 32 minutes.

Last week Bhupathi and Knowles had lost in the quarter-finals at the Toronto Masters Series to J Eagle and A Florent 6-7(2), 7-5, 3-6.