Bhupathi-Stepanek lose in Dubai Duty Free tennis final

Dubai, Mar 4 (UNI) Third seeds Fabrice Santoro and Nenad Zimonjic prevailed over Mahesh Bhupathi and Radek Stepanek in a tight match 7-5, 6-7(3), 10-7 to win the doubles title of Dubai Duty Free tennis tournament here.

Santoro and Zimonjic had a break in the first set on Stepanek's serve to go 3-2 up, but Bhupathi and his Czech partner came back on Zimonjic's serve to make it 3-3.

Bhupathi then came up with a piercing return to go 5-4 but the France-Serbia pair won a crucial break in the 11th game for a 6-5 lead and then Santoro held serve to win the first set 7-5 in 37 minutes last night.

The second set was tighter with all four holding serves to go into the tie-breaker which was won by Bhupathi-Stepanek.

The decider tie-break was a close call with the third seeds offsetting a 2-4 deficit to draw level 4-4.

Leading 6-4, Stepanek double faulted and then a return from Bhupathi lipped the net and went out to make the scoreline 6-6.

Another doubt fault -- this time from Bhupathi -- saw Santoro and Zimonjic moving towards victory and though Zimonjic committed a double fault in between Santoro took control to win the tie-break 10-7 and win the match.

UNI