Leander Paes' bid for a pair of 2012 Australian Open doubles titles has come up just short as he and Elena Vesnina went down in the mixed doubles decider against Horia Tecau and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
On Saturday, Paes claimed his maiden men's doubles title at Melbourne Park with Czech Radek, the pair having stunned top seeds and defending champions Mike and Bob Bryan.
Paes and his Russian partner looked to have the momentum when they fought back from a set and 4-2 down following a brief rain delay to force a deciding third-set match tie-breaker.
But the 38-year-old was unable to pick up his third Australian Open mixed doubles crown as he and Vesnina made a poor start to the tie-breaker and never recovered as the eighth seeds, Romanian Tecau and American Mattek-Sands prevailed 6-3 5-7 (10-3).
The triumph was a Grand Slam first for both Tecau and Mattek-Sands in doubles, Tecau having lost the men's deciders at Wimbledon in each of the past two years.
Tecau and Mattek-Sands started well when they broke Paes in the second game of the match for 2-0, only to hand it straight back on Mattek-Sands' serve but they broke for a second time in the fourth game delivered by Vesnina and had no trouble then taking out the set.
And when they immediately broke Vesnina on the way to a 2-0 and later 4-2 lead they looked headed for an easy win only for Paes and Vesnina to win five of the final six games to force the tie-breaker.
But Tecau and Mattek-Sands raced to a 3-0 lead with a pair of winners either side of an ace from Tecau and conceded just three points in total in the tie-breaker as they took the championship with their first match point.
Paes and Vesnina served better, landing 68 percent of their first serves to 55 from their opponents but it was Tecau and Mattek-Sands who converted far better, winning 78 percent of the points to just 58 when the serves went in.
And the winners also struck 34 winners to 20 while committing 20 unforced errors to 14.