A second successive French Open men's doubles title eluded Leander Paes. The Indian ace and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy lost to Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in the final in straight sets in Paris on Saturday.
The defending champions were beaten 5-7, 2-6 by the second seeds in 65 minutes at the Roland Garros.
The third seeded Indo-Czech duo failed to convert the two break-points that came their way while their opponents converted three of the four they earned.
"It has been a great two weeks and I'm happy to be in the final for the second successive time. I would like to thank Lukas for making it happen and sticking with me," said Paes, who won the title in 1999 and 2001 (both with Mahesh Bhupathi) and then with Dlouhy in 2009. Dlouhy, on his part, credited their opponents for playing terrific tennis and said hopefully next year they would regain the title.
"They were just too good today. Hopefully, me and Leander will play some more tournament in the future and regain the title next year," Dlouhy said.
Paes already has six men's doubles and five mixed doubles Grand Slam crowns in his pocket, the same as his estranged partner, Bhupathi.
Paes and Dlouhy, who put up an impressive performance coming into the final, earned a break-point as early as the second game after five deuces but couldn't convert it.
Locked 5-5, Nestor-Zimonjic finally broke the Indo-Czech pair in the 11th game and held their serve in the next to wrap the first set 7-5 in 40 minutes.
With momentum going their way, the Canadian-Serbian duo quickly earned two more break-points in the first game of the second set and even though Paes and Dlouhy saved one, they were eventually broken as Nestor-Zimonjic led 1-0.
Trailing 1-2, Paes-Dlouhy earned another break-point in the third game but failed to covert it yet again.
To make things worse, Dlouhy double-faulted and gave away three break-points, which the Canadian-Serbian pair converted without much ado and surged ahead 4-1.
The Indo-Czech pair narrowed the gap to 2-5 but it was too late as Nestor-Zimonjic held their serves to eventually wrap the second set 6-2 in 25 minutes and pocket the match and title comfortably.
