Doubles despair down under

Israeli tennis took another blow on Friday after their men’s doubles duo of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram suffered a first round defeat.

Up against Italian Daniele Bracciali and Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, the Israeli’s, who won the title back in 2008, lost the first set on a tie-break. They then levelled the match by winning the second 6-4, but were beaten 6-3 in the third and deciding set.

Their first round exit followed on from Shahar Peer, Dudi Sela and Julia Glushko all losing their first round matches in the singles tournament on Monday.

Peer is at least still involved in action after she and her Spanish partner Silvia Soler-Espinoza defeated Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. They next face Czech Lucie Hradecka and Michaella Krajicek, for a place in the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles.