Thaindian News

Paris, June 5 (IANS) India’s Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy knocked out top seeded Canadian-Serbian pair of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in straight sets to enter men’s doubles final at the French Open here Thursday.
The third seeded Indo-Czech duo took one hour and 48 minutes to down their fancied rivals, winning two tie-breaks, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) in the semi-final.

Paes and Dlouhy run into unseeded Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Dick Norman of Belgium in the title clash.

Moodie and Norman also pulled off an upset, beating second-seeded American Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, 0-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Toronto’s Daniel Nestor, 36, and Serbian Zimonjic, 32, came to Paris after a terrific clay-court season, winning four titles, making them invincible on the surface.

They won titles at Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Madrid.

Nestor said it’s been a fantastic season, but unfortunately we missed a great opportunity of adding a Slam to 20-2 record on clay.

Their only other loss came a month ago at the Serbian Open.

They had beaten Paes and Dlouhy in the Rotterdom final in February.

“Hopefully it will be better on the grass,” he said.

Nestor was unhappy the way he played at the beginning of the match.

“I was terrible in the first set,” said Nestor, whose team falls to second in the world rankings behind the Bryans as a result of the defeat.

“I missed some returns that I shouldn’t have,” he said.

Nestor and Zimonjic saved two match points each, the former did it in the 10th game with huge service winners, while Zimonjic saved his two games later, the seond one pushing the set into a tie-break.

Dlouhy and Paes, who lost all their five previous matches with Nestor, made the most of their chances in the tiebreak, taking an early 3-1 lead.

The match ended as Dlouhy served out the one-hour 48-minute victory.

“They played well, they were consistent and that was enough to win today,” Nestor said.

– Indo-Asian News Service

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