Miami (Florida), April 1 (IANS) India’s Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek came back from a set down to beat second-seeded Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor in the men’s doubles final of the Sony Ericsson Open.
The seventh seeds won their second title of the season Saturday beating the Belarusian and Serbian pair 3-6, 6-1, (10-8) to win in an hour and 22 minutes.
After dropping the first set, the Australian Open champions broke Mirnyi and Nestor twice in the second set to force a tie-break. The Indian-Czech tandem trailed 1-4 before winning six straight points to surge ahead. Stepanek closed out the victory with an unreturnable volley.
“We fought through it, and we got on top of them in the second set all the way,” Stepanek was quoted as saying the ATP website.
“We were the more aggressive, and, I would say, creative team in the tie-break, as well. That’s why we won.”
Paes collected his third straight crown at Crandon Park, having won previously with Lukas Dlouhy in 2010 and Mahesh Bhupathi in 2011. The 38-year-old also became the 24th player in ATP World Tour history to win 50 doubles titles.
“It’s really, really special. 50 tournaments takes a little doing. 600 matches takes a little bit of doing. Having done a three titles in Miami is awesome. Next year, I hope to win another one,” said Paes.
