Defending mixed doubles US Open champion Leander Paes and partner Martina Hingis were today knocked out of the tournament in the second round, losing to CoCo Vandeweghe and Rajeev Ram of the United States in straight sets.
It was a closely fought contest for the Indo-Swiss pair, who hold a Career Grand Slam together, with Ram and Vandeweghe beating them 7-6 (1), 3-6, 13-11.
Hingis is Vandeweghe’s partner on the women’s doubles circuit, with the two coming together following the Swiss’ split from Sania Mirza, who is now partnered by Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic. The pair have already won a title together – at the Cincinnati Masters, and have carried good form into the tournament here.
Rajeev Ram is also in good form, having won silver at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games partnered by former World No. 1 Venus Williams; the pair had beat the Indian combine of Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza in the semi-final there.
Paes is now out of the US Open entirely; he lost his second round men’s doubles match with German partner Andre Begemann in three sets – 6-2, 5-7, 4-6 to Stephane Robert and Dudi Sela.
Although Paes had been expected to progress through the Open, it was Bopanna – who has been having a bit of a downswing on the circuit, who progressed through the Open, partnered by Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski. They beat the strong pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lukasz Kubot to progress to the quarterfinals in a closely fought 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 fight, where they will play Anna-Lena Groenfeld of Germany and Colombia’s Robert Farah.
Sania Mirza, who won her first round mixed doubles match with partner Ivan Dodig – the pair are top seeded in the mixed doubles, today progressed in the women’s doubles with Barbora Strycova; the pair beat Nicole Melichar of the USA, partnered by Swiss Viktorija Golubic in straight sets – 6-2, 7-6.
They will next play the Japanese-American combine of Nao Hibino and Nicole Gibbs.
