Paes-Damm pair wins doubles title in Rotterdam

New Delhi, Feb 26 (UNI) Fourth seeds Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm lifted the doubles crown in the World Tennis Tournament with a hard-earned win against the makeshift pair of Andrei Pavel and Alexander Waske in the final at Rotterdam.

Paes and Damm scraped the past their rivals 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-7 to lift the title in the 34th edition of the event, according to information received here today.

Paes and Damm seized early initiative by grabbing the first set but their rivals refused to give in as Pavel and Waske raised their game by a few notches to stretch the second set to tie-breaker and then clinch it to stay afloat.

Paes and Damm responded well to the situation and dug deep into their vast reserve to slam the door on their rivals.

''It was a great week here in Rotterdam,'' said Paes.

''We had a few difficult matches, but we were able to win them in the tiebreak. We just kept on fighting and Martin Damm played his best points at the right moments,'' he added.

Damm was also happy with his show in the tournament.

''Every title is important and we're extremely happy to add Rotterdam to our series of tournament triumphs. I'm really pleased that we were able to follow up a win in Rosmalen with another win in Rotterdam,'' he said.

Paes and Damm had beaten the Mahesh Bhupathi-Nenad Zimonjic pair 6-7, 7-6, 12-10 in the semifinals.

UNI