Leander Paes’s final ATP Tour match on home soil ended on a disappointing note as he and his partner Matthew Ebden lost to the Indian pair of Purav Raja and Ramkumar Ramanathan in the doubles final of the Bengaluru Open on Saturday.
Paes, who has said this will be his final year of professional tennis, and Ebden were no match for their rivals, losing 0-6, 3-6 in the summit clash that lasted just 56 minutes.
Paes, 46, and Ebden reached the final after beating Andre Goransson and Christopher Rungkat 7-5, 0-6, 10-7 .
An emotional Paes said he will miss the massive support.
“The fact that I’ve played my last match in India — it sunk in after the match when I was signing autographs. A young girl — must have been five or six years old — gave me a ‘One Last Roar’ T-shirt which was twice her size,” he said.
