Paes fails to make it a double by losing men’s doubles final

By IANS,

New York : India’s Leander Paes was denied the double of winning the two doubles titles when he and his Czech Republic partner Lukas Dloughy lost a pulsating men’s doubles final to American twins Bob and Mike Bryan at Flushing Meadows here Friday.


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Leander, who had won the mixed doubles title with Zimbabwean Cara Black Thursday, and Dloughy lost two exciting tie-breakers 6-7 (5-7) and 6-7 (10-12) to Bryan brothers.

The victory gave the 30-year-old Bryans their second US Open and their sixth Grand Slam title to add to their French Open (2003), US Open (2005), Wimbledon (2006) and Australian Open (2006 and 2007).

Bryans came back from an early break of Bob’s serve in the third game of the first set by breaking back Dloughy in the sixth. Surviving close calls on Paes’s service, the first set was forced to a tiebreak.

Paes and Lukas saved two set points before giving it up at 5-7 as Dloughy failed with a service return.

The second set saw a similar pattern as Dloughy dropped his serve in the third game and broke back immediately as Mike failed to hold his serve.

As the second set progressed Dloughy got better and better with his serve as well as his stroke-making. With Paes controlling the net admirably, the pair had four set points to force a third-set decider. Each time the Bryan bothers got away as Paes served a double fault at 8-7, but made up with an ace to get to another set point.

Eventually, the Bryans clinched their second match point as Dloughy struck a backhand service return wide.

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