Injury ends Bhupathi's campaign

An aggravated calf muscle injury forced Mahesh Bhupathi to withdraw from the semi-finals of the French Open mixed doubles, ending the Indian challenge at the clay-court Grand Slam in Paris on Thursday.

Bhupathi and partner Jie Zheng of China gave a walkover to the top-seeded pair of Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic in the last-four match, as the Indian was not match-fit till the last moment.

The ace doubles player had injured his calf muscle earlier this summer and aggravated it further during the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

According to reports, playing in the semis might have cost the 34-year-old pro the entire summer, including Wimbledon and the Beijing Olympics.

Bhupathi, who played alongside Mark Knowles of the Bahamas, lost in the first round of the men's doubles while another Indian, Leander Paes, and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy went down in the third round.

Paes and Nadia Petrova of Russia lost to Bhupathi and Zheng in the first round of the mixed doubles.