Leander Paes and Andre Sa suffered a 6-4, 6-7(3), 4-6 defeat against Max Mirnyi/Treat Huey in the first round of men's doubles of the Australian Open on Thursday.
Paes/Sa secured a crucial break in the fifth game of the opening set to go 3-2 up, and then held on to the lead to take the set 6-4. Neither team secured a break in the second, which went into a tiebreak, in which Paes/Sa lost serve three times, conceding the set and taking the match into a decider.
Tenth seeds Mirnyi/Huey secured a break in the seventh game of the third set, holding on to the lead to see out the set 6-4 and advance to the third round.
Elsewhere, Purav Raja and Divij Sharan also lost their opening men's doubles match, going down 6-7(9-11), 6-7(4-7) against Jonathan Eysseric/Fabrice Martin.
Paes is still in contention in mixed doubles. He and partner Martina Hingis face Australian pair of Destanee Aiava and Marc Polmans in the first round on Friday.
On Wednesday, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna both registered opening round wins in women's doubles and men's doubles respectively.
