Leander Paes-Daniel Nestor pair advances at Wimbledon

London, July 1: Leander Paes and his Canadian partner Dainel Nestor overcame spirited opposition to advance to the men's doubles second round at the Wimbledon championships but it was all over for Purav Raja and his French teammate Fabrice Martin, here today.

11th seeds Paes and Nestor quelled the challenge from the Serbian pair of Victor Troicki and Dusan Lajovic 6-3 6-4 7-5 after battling hard for an hour and 42 minutes on Court Number six at the SW 19.

Purav Raja, who had qualified with Martin, fought their hearts out before losing 1-6 4-6 6-4 6-7 (7-9) against the 2012 Wimbledon champions Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielson. Paes lost serve at love in the third game but the Indo-Canadian pair broke back immediately to prevent damage.

They broke rivals at love in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead and then the two pairs held serve with Paes and Nestor pocketing the opening set. The second was more tight with scoreline 3-3 after initial battle.

Paes and Nestor broke in the seventh game. The lead stayed with the 11th seeds as they served out the set in the 10th to take a firm grip over the match. The third set was another close battle as they pairs served strong for a 5-5 scoreline.

Paes and Nestor broke finally succeeded in getting that crucial break in the 11th game and then saved two break chances while serving for the match and closed it in their favour when the rivals committed a backhand error.

Raja and Martin saved a match point in the fourth-set tie break and had a set point but could not convert that and lost the contest on the second match point while serving.

PTI