Balaji- Reyes-Varela pair bows out of Australian Open

Sriram Balaji and Mexico's Miguel Reyes-Varela went down fighting, bringing to a close Indian action in the men's doubles at the Australian Open.The Portuguese pair of Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral came through 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-3 in two-hours and 9-minutes.Balaji and Reyes-Varela, who made the third round of the French Open last year, did well to pull themselves back into the contest in 11th game of the opening set, warding off breakpoints on the Mexican's serve. They however couldn't get going in the tie-break which the Portuguese pair wrapped up quickly.The Indo-Mexican combination then struck early, breaking in the opening game of the second set and sealed that advantage in the tenth game to take the match into the decider, where Borges and Cabral came out on top.Senthil Kumar falls
India's Rethin Senthil Kumar went down to the seventh-seed from Finland Oskari Paldanius in the first-round of the boys singles event, falling 7-5, 4-6, 0-6 in two-hours and 7-minutesSenthil Kumar, ranked 32 in the world in the juniors, held up well in the first set, breaking Paldanius in the 12th game to close out the 57-minute set. The Indian then took a 2-0 lead in the second set, breaking in the first game and backing it up with a hold. The Chennai-based teen, who had surgery on his left thumb eight weeks ago, because of which he introduced the single-handed slice to his game, struggled on the backhand side as the match progressed. Senthil Kumar won only two of the last 14 games.