Paes-Damm pair crashes out of Cincinnati Open

Cincinnati, Aug 20 (UNI) Leander Paes and Martin Damm fought hard but eventually ran out of steam as they lost the semi-final clash against second seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi 6-7 (3), 2-6 to bow out of the 2.45 million dollar Cincinnati Open here. The seventh seeded Indo-Czech pair matched the Swedish-Belarussian pair shot for shot in the opening set but could not maintain the tempo as they went down in straight sets to end their campaign in the ATP event.

Paes and Damm made a good start, helped to some extent by their rivals' poor serve, and took the fight to the second seeds. However, the effort proved futile against the experienced Swede and his comrade-in-arms from Belarus and the Indo-Czech lost the opener in the tie-break.

The seventh seeds, exhausted after the hard fought first set, were completely out of sorts in the second and failed to break their oppponents even once. The Bjorkman-Mirnyi pair were quick to grab the initiative and ran away with the set to seal the match in their favour.

Paes and Damm have so far won the Ordina Open title at Hertogenbosch this year in the Netherlands and reached the finals of the Australian Open.

The Indo-Czech pair has a 21-13 season record and were looking for their first ATP Masters Series shield. Paes took home the Cincinnati crown in 2001 with now estranged partner Bhupathi.

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