Doha: The atmosphere was electrifying, but the result was dampening. For the large number of Indian fans present at the Al Khalifa Sports Complex here, it was simply a shocking end as the much-fancied Leander Paes & Co. went down to Chinese Taipei 2-1 in their opening match to crash out of the men’s team event.

With Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi turning out for India and the star girl Sania Mirza lending the vocal support from the stands, the stadium was overflowing with spectators that included local Indians and tennis buffs.

In the end, the India backers had to leave a dejected lot as the star studded duo of Paes and Bhupathi lost to Chinese Taipei pair of Wang Yeu Tzuoo and Lu Yen Hsun 2-6, 3-6 in the crucial doubles encounter.

Even in defeat, the best quote of the day came from Paes. “I felt really bad for Bopanna after we lost the doubles,” said the senior-most pro. “We have let him down.”

He was not far from the truth. After Karan Rastogi went down to Tzuoo 1-6, 3-6 rather tamely, Bopanna played a gallant game to level the scores. The Davis Cupper defeated Lu Yen Hsun 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 in a 138-minute-long absorbing battle.

An apologetic Paes later added: “We also let down the fans, who came in numbers to support us. But we are going to come back with far greater vengeance in the (individual) doubles and mixed doubles.”

Paes admitted that the team perhaps took Chinese Taipei too lightly. “It is simply an eye-opener for us,” he said.

He even suggested that Bhupathi was not at his best to tackle the strong-serving opponents.

“Hesh has not been playing much for a while now. It did show in his play. It also speaks of the quality of Asian players these days,” the Indian captain said.

Bhupathi, however, went away without speaking to the mediamen. The kind of form he displayed on Tuesday, he had every reason to feel frustrated.

Elsewhere, Soumyadeep Roy and Sharath Kamal remained the two Indian hopes in table tennis as all others — Mouma Das, Poulami Ghatak, Kasturi Chakrabarty and Mousumi Pal — lost both in singles and doubles events. While Sharath defeated Doan Quoc of Vietnam 11-6, 11-7, Soumyadeep beat Anwar Saleh of Brunei 11-8, 11-5, 11-5.

The competitive flavour was quite high in kabaddi as India and Pakistan faced each other in the evening. There were quite a few enthusiastic Pakistan fans, who had to be disappointed in the end. India, who started poorly, finally clinched the issue in their favour rather easily.

After two days of good showing, India had a bad day at the shooting ranges. The 50-m rifle prone teams in both men’s and women’s sections lost in the qualification round. The shooters then went over to the hockey field to watch India playing Bangladesh.