Bopanna and his Czech partner Adam Pavlasek fought tooth and nail before falling 2-6 6-7(5) to second seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten, ranked three and four in the world, respectively.
Bhambri and his American partner Robert Galloway lost 4-6 4-6 to ninth seeds Christian Harrison and Evan King from the United States.
An early break put the Indo-American pair in a disadvantageous position. They saved four set points in game nine after being down 0-40 but Galloway found a way to hold and stay alive in the opening set.
Harrison, though, served out the set after being 0-30.
At 4-4 in the second set, Bhambri dropped serve, which proved decisive in the outcome of the match. The Indian hit an overhead smash long at 30-all and Galloway netted a volley on the break point to hand an opportunity to their rivals to close the match in the next game..
Bhambri netted a forehand return at 30-all to give King the first match point and Galloway hit his return wide..
Earlier, Heliovaara and Patten zoomed to a 5-1 lead in the opening set with a double break. The Finn served out the set at love, finishing the game with an overhead smash on a return.
Bopanna made a solid start to the second set, holding without losing a point on his serve. Left-handed Patten too came out all guns blazing, sending down some measured and powerful angled serves.
Bopanna and Pavlasek got an opening when at 2-3, Patten began game six with a double fault and lost another point to be down 0-30 but the Briton reeled off four straight points to avert the danger.
There was no break of serve and eventually the second set was stretched to a tie-breaker in which the second seeds prevailed when Heliovaara found a stunning service return winner on first match point.
N Sriram Balaji and Rithvik Bolipalli have already exited the tournament.
In the Junior event, India’s exciting prospect for future Manas Dhamne bowed out of the boys singles after losing 5-7 3-6 to fellow American qualifier Ronit Karki.
The 17-year-old Dhamne had entered the main draw as a qualifier. He could not play to his potential on Sunday.
Hitesh Chauhan also qualified for the boys singles and is drawn to meet Sweden’s Ludvig Fredrik Hede. PTI AT AT KHS
