Paes bids adieuto Wimbledon after defeat in doubles semis

London, July 6 (UNI) Leander Paes' Wimbledon campaign came to a screeching halt after the seven seeded Indian and his Czech partner Martin Damm were handed a straight set defeat by sixth seeded Frenchman Fabrice Santoro and his Serbian teammate Nenad Zimonjic in the semifinals of the men's doubles event here today.

Santoro and Zimonjic maintained their grip over the proceedings right from the beginning and took 96 minutes to quell the Indo-Czech challenge with the scoreline reading 6-2, 6-1, 7-5 in their favour.

Earlier, Paes and his Australian team mate Samantha Stosur crashed out of the mixed doubles event with a straight set defeat against the American pair of Bob Bryan and Venus Williams in the quarterfinals here.

Santoro and Zimonjic raced to a 4-1 lead in no time and dropped another game before serving to pocket the first set.

They were in ominous form in the second set, winning the first five games in a row before Paes and Damm managed to snatch one but that was all they could do and was pushed to the brink after losing first two sets.

In the third set, Paes and Damm put up an improved show and even led 4-1 but they soon lost the plot. Santoro and Zimonjic then took over and broke their rivals twice to win the set 7-5 and storm into the finals.

In the other semifinals, top seeded Bryan brothers -- Bob and Mike- meet third seeds Mark Knowles of Bahama and Canadian Daniel Nestor.

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