Paes-Damm duo stuns defending champions in ATP Masters

Nov 12: India's Leander Paes and his partner Martin Damm of the Czech Republic started off their ATP Masters Cup doubles event with a straight set 6-4, 6-1 win over defending champions Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus here on Sunday.

The fourth seeded Indo-Czech pair outplayed sixth seeded Bjorkman-Mirnyi duo in the Blue Group of the eight-team event. Paes and Damm had lost to Bjorkman and Mirnyi in the semi-finals of the last edition. They however overcame their bad run as they were consecutively losing in the first round of the Masters series tournaments held in Paris and Madrid respectively.

Paes and Damm started off on a positive note and dominated the proceedings right from the start. They won four out of the seven break points; they earned to finish off the match in an hour and four minutes.

The 2006 US Open champions Paes and Damm looked sharp from the outset, earning a break point on Bjorkman's serve in the very third game and then breaking the Swede's service in the fifth game. The duo then broke Mirnyi's serve in the first and fifth games of the second set and later broke Bjorkman’s service to seal the match.

The top two teams from both the Red and Gold Groups will qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament.