Paes-Damm go down fighting to Bryan Bros in Miami final

Miami, Apr 1 (UNI) Leander Paes and Czech mate Martin Damm lost a golden opportunity to become the new Stanford ATP Doubles Race leaders after going down fighting to American siblings Bob and Mike Bryan in the Sony Ericsson Open final here.

The Indo-Czech pair gave it their all and stretched the top-seeded Bryan Brothers to tie-breaks in two sets for an hour and 36 minutes to finally lose 7-6 (7), 3-6, 7-10 (Match TB) and hand the opponents their first Sony Ericsson Open title.

The Bryans converted three of four break points, while saving three of four break points they faced. The Americans won 73 points in total, compared to 71 points for Paes-Damm.

The sixth-seeded pair also missed a chance to become the first team since Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor in 2002 to capture back-to-back ATP Masters Series titles in Indian Wells and Miami.

However, for the Californian brothers it was their sixth ATP Masters Series shield and their 36th career title.

This victory must have given a lot of satisfaction to the duo as they had lost to Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in last year's Miami final.

They now have an ATP-best third titles for the season, and maintain their lead in the Stanford ATP Doubles Race. They split 185,000 dollar in prize money.

The Bryans are 6-8 lifetime in ATP Masters Series finals and they have reached the title match in all nine Masters Series tournaments.

Paes and Damm was in sizzling form throughout the tournament, having knocked out two-time defending champions Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the quarter-finals and then getting the better of Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra in the semifinals to set up the title clash with the Bryans.

With this loss, the reigning US Open champions fall to 20-5 for the year (49-23 career record). They have captured one other ATP titles this year in Rotterdam and finished runner-up in Doha.

UNI