Leander Paes-Andre Begemann squander five match points to lose Salem ATP final

Winston-Salem, USA: Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and his German partner Andre Begemann failed to clinch the Winston-Salem Open title after going down in the finals of the men`s doubles event here.

After winning the first set, the unseeded Indo-German duo failed to capitalize on it and suffered a 6-4, 6-7, 8-10 defeat at the hands of another unseeded pair of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Henri Kontinen in the title clash.

Earlier, Paes and Begemann had reached the last four after defeating Polish-Serbian pair of Lukasz Kubot and Nenad Zimonjic 6-4, 6-4 before outclassing third seeds Robert Lindstedt and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in the semifinals.

It was Paes` first ATP Tour-level final of the year in men`s doubles. He has lifted at least one tour-level doubles title for 19 years in a row.