The Uberoi sisters, Shikha and Neha, lost in the opening round of doubles at the US $170,000 WTA Tier III tournament in Hasselt, Belgium.

Shikha and Neha, who were unable to make it to the singles main draw, lost in straight sets to the fourth seeds Maria Elena Camerin of Italy [Images] and Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives 4-6, 2-6.

The sisters put up a fight in the first set but the Indo-American pairing could not sustain their resistance and went down in straight sets.

Earlier, Shikha faltered at the final hurdle of qualifying, losing to Mandy Minella of Luxemburg 2-6 7-6, 5-7.

After conceding the first set, Shikha came back strongly to win the second set in a tie-breaker, but she could not keep her nerve in the crucial stages of the decider and failed to make it to the main draw.

Neha's run in the singles qualifying round came to a halt in the second round, when Ukrainian Olga Savchuk handed her a 6-4, 3-6, 0-6 defeat.

Elsewhere, Mahesh Bhupathi [Images] and his Czech partner Martin Damm, seeded third, were knocked out in the first round by the unseeded pair of Jurgen Melzer and Julian Knowles of Austria in the million-dollar St Petersburg [Images] Open.

The Indo-Czech pair got off to a good start by winning the first set, but went down 6-3, 3-6, 6-7(7).

This was the last tournament the duo were playing together, as Bhupathi has decided to partner Weslie Moodie of South Africa, who won the Wimbledon doubles title this year with Stephan Huss of Australia.

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