Paes-Damm shocked by Youzhny-Zimonjic,finish runner-up at Qatar

New Delhi, Jan 6 (UNI) Third seeded Indo-Czech pair of Leander Paes and Martin Damm finished runner-up in the one million dollar Qatar Open following a shocking 1-6, 6-7(3) loss to Russian Mikhail Youzhny and Serb Nenad Zimonjic in the doubles finals.

The unseeded Russian-Serb duo was pairing up only for the second time ever but proved too good for the third seeds, who failed to recover after making a poor start.

Youzhny and Zimonjic served well and converted five of the nine break points they got to emerge victorious in the final, which became competetive only in the second set which was decided through tie-breaker.

Paes and Damm were completely out of sorts and struggled to find feet from the very start as they surrendered the opening set quite meekly. The reigning US Open champions were broken thrice as they went down 1-6 in a one-sided first set.

The Indo-Czech pair, however, fought back in the second set but were matched shot for shot by Youzhny and Zimonjic.

The Russian-Serb duo saved four break points and won the match in the tie-breaker against the exhausted third seeds. The win gave Youzhny his second and Zimonjic his 14th doubles crown.

The Russian-Serb duo also claimed its first ATP title together and Zimonjic said he couldn't have asked for a better start to the new year.

''This is a great start to the new year. I am happy to have won with Misha. We just got better as the week went on,'' he said after the match.

UNI