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Paes loses in doubles too

Leander Paes made an early exit from the doubles event at the Dubai Duty Free Open tennis tournament yesterday when he and Nicolas Lapentti lost to Jiri Novak and David Rikl 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 a first round match.

Paes had earlier lost to Fernando Vicente of Spain 0-6, 6-4, 3-6 in the men's singles first round.

Nicolas Lapentti had asked his tour manager to find him a doubles partner for the Dubai tournament, and on arriving was apparently surprised to find that Leander would be his partner. Paes became available as Wayne Black was too tired after his Davis Cup committments and decided against playing doubles.

Paes now heads to Calcutta for next week's $50,000 ATP Challenger on grass, where he is the defending champion. Top seeded last year, he had defeated his doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 for the title.