Leander Paes loses Dubai Duty Free tennis doubles final

PTI

Dubai: Veteran Leander Paes didn't have the last laugh in his 97th ATP tour final as he lost in the summit clash of the men's doubles event at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship.

The tournament is a USD 2.6 million ATP 500 event.

Paes and his American partner Jamie Cerretani lost to Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Horia Tecau of Romania 2-6 6-7 (2-7) in 87 minutes in the summit clash.

This was Rojer and Tecau's 17th ATP title as a pair. 

The 44-year-old legendary Indian, who is currently ranked 52nd in the world, had a good tournament until the final.

In his 28th season on pro-circuit, Paes is now only three finals short of achieving a century of summit clashes on the tour.

The second serve let down Paes and his partner a great deal. While Tecau-Rojer had a success rate of 76 percent, the Indo-US pair stood at mere 42 percent.

Also they could only convert one break point and that too in the second set which they stretched to the tie-breaker while the winners got three breaks in the first set.