Paes-Damm pair wards off tough challenge to enter rd 2 of Oz Open

Melbourne, Jan 18 (UNI) Fifth seeds Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm survived a tense battle against the unheralded Serb duo of Novak Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic for a 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3 win in the first round of the men's doubles event at the Australian Open here today.

Paes and Damm will now take on locals Nathan Healey and Robert Smeets in the second round.

The Indo-Czech duo was tested hard in the marathon match, which lasted over two hours, but managed to come through after their opponents lost steam in the third set.

It was supposed to be an easy outing for the fifth seeds against their unheralded rivals but Djokovic and Tipsarevic showed that they were no walkovers in the very first set.

The Serbs held their serve and matched Paes and Damm shot for shot before losing the 57-minute-long set in tie-breaker.

Shaken by the strong challenge, Paes and Damm struggled to find their feet in the second set and apart from committing three double faults, were broken twice by their rivals.

The fifth seeds lost the second set but came back hard in the decider to seal the match in their favour. They held their serve and broke Djokovic and Tipsarevic once besides hitting more winners to survive the challenge and enter the next level.

UNI