New York, Sep 11 - India's Leander Paes and Cara Black of Zimbabwe were outclassed by Americans Travis Parrott and Carly Gullickson 2-6, 4-6 in the mixed doubles final of the US Open tennis tournament here Thursday.

Defending champions Paes and Black struggled to find their rhythm and hardly put up a fight going down in just over an hour against wild cards Parrott and Gullickson, who won their maiden Grand Slam title together.

For the second successive year, Paes was in line for two titles here, having reached the doubles final with Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic. In 2008, Paes won the mixed doubles with Black but lost in the men's doubles final.

Paes would be now hoping to topple compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas in the doubles final to win his career's 10th Grand Slam title.

Paes and Black had put up an impressive performance coming into the final, but they lost their touch in the all-important match.

Black was all over the place with her shots and also struggled to hold her service games.