Laender Paes and Jurgen Melzer snatch doubles title at Shanghai Masters 2010
Laender Paes and Jurgen Melzer recorded a dream debut by winning the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters doubles title battle in three sets against Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg of Poland on Sunday. The final match score was 7-5, 4-6, 10-5.
The Indian-Austrian pair had earlier also ended the twenty match winning streak of top ranked Bryans from U.S. in the semi-final while the Polish duo had come into the tournament after their final appearances at the China Open and Malaysian Open last week.
The Indian tennis sensation, Laender Paes, after the victory, said, “I have tremendous respect for Melzer. I think he is one of the most hard working and talented tennis contenders that I have seen over the last twenty years while being on the tour.”
Paes added, “He has defeated two top ranked players in the same week, first Rafael Nadal in the third round and then the Bryan brothers last night. For me, it is a great honour to play with Melzer. Not only is he a Grand Slam winner at Wimbledon this season,
but I consider him one of the greatest talents in tennis and a good guy."
The third seed pair bounced back from a break down at 4-5 in the opening set to take the last three games and register a one set lead. Matkowski and Fyrstenberg, who were seeded number six, came back decisively during the ninth game of the following set
to tie the clash.
However, they immediately fell behind in the battle tie break as Jurgen took a lead of 7-1. From then on, Paes and Melzer never looked back and went on to clinch win in eighty three minutes.
Melzer, after the match, stated, "As Paes said, beating two top ranked players in the same week is superb. But, finishing it off with a crown is amazing as it is my first title in a Masters 1000 event. I think we can match up great. It is also nice to have
so much experience next to you. You always feel comfortable. He most of the times has your back. So, it was a great week. I enjoyed it."
This title came as the third tour level doubles crown for the twenty nine year old Jurgen in 2010. He previously won a doubles trophy at the grass court Grand Slam tournament in London as well as Zagreb along with his partner, Philipp Petzschner. Melzer
was also a finalist at the 2010 PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok along with his partner Jonathan Erlich few days ago.
The thirty seven year old Paes, on the other hand, lifted his second trophy in 2010 and 44th overall. The Indian had earlier paired up with Lukas Dlouhy to capture the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown in Miami back in April.
He has already qualified for the season ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London along with Petzschner, while Laender is also in a strong position to qualify with his routine partner, Dlouhy. Both are currently ranked number three in the 2010 ATP
Doubles ranking.
Matkowski and Fyrstenberg, who are also keen on making their way into the next month’s London tournament, started the week at number seven in the ATP doubles rankings. The Polish duo, as a result of this loss, has slipped to a final mark of 11-17. They had
earlier captured their eleventh title at Eastbourne in June.
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