Paes-Damm pair kicks off Qatar Open campaign in style

New Delhi, Jan 2 (UNI) Third seeds Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm began their new year campaign with a thumping straight set win in the first round of the 1,000,000 dollar Qatar Open.

In a lop-sided match, the Paes-Damm duo toyed with the wild card pair of Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco and local favourite Sultan Khalfan before chalking out a facile 6-2, 6-1 win, according to information received here today.

Paes and Damm were in aggressive mode right from the beginning and were never really tested. After clinching the first set in no time, they showed no mercy for their unheralded pair and dropped just one game to round off the tally.

They will now meet winner of the match between the Belgian Christophe Rochus-Kristof Vliegen pair and the Spanish duo of Nicolas Almagro and Alberto Martin in the next round.

Meanwhile, unseeded duo of Philipp Kohlschreiber and Robin Soderling pulled off the biggest upset of the day with a hard-fought 1-6, 6-3, 10-7 win against top seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi.

Paes had won the title back in 1998, along with his now estranged partner and compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi, while Damm, partnering Cyril Suk, won the doubles title twice in a row in 2003 and 2004.

UNI