NEW DELHI: The failure to defend his US Open title cost Leander Paes dear as the veteran Indian tennis star on Tuesday suffered a 23-place loss to slip to 35, his worst ranking in 11 years.
Paes and Stepanek, who were defending 2000 points at Flushing Meadows, had crashed out in the round of 16 following defeat against Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez.
In January 2003, Paes was ranked 38 but in the last few years, he has consistently remained in top-20.
Rohan Bopanna, who with Paes will play the Davis Cup doubles rubber against Serbia, gained two places to find himself at 27.
Meanwhile in the singles, four in top five Indian players had their rankings hit. Somdev Devvarman lost a place to be 144 despite making the final of the Shanghai Challenger.
Yuki Bhambri was the next best Indian at number 153 though the Delhi youngster also dropped two positions.
N Sriram Balaji was the only one who had a boost in ranking as he moved five places up to 313.
Ramkumar Ramanthan and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan dropped out of top-300 as the former lost 11 places to be at 309 while the latter is now at number 318 after a steep fall of 25 places.
Meanwhile, in the WTA rankings Sania Mirza dropped two places to number seven after a semifinal appearance in the women’s doubles with Cara Black.
In the Race to Singapore, the year-end championships, Sania and Cara remain at number four. Top-eight teams will compete in the Finals.
Sania won the US Open mixed doubles trophy with Brazilian Bruno Soares.