Victory for Paes on 40th birthday

Eastbourne (Britain): Indian tennis legend Leander Paes celebrated his 40th birthday with a victory in first round of the men`s doubles event at the Aegon International here.

Seeded third, Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek advanced to the quarterfinals after posting a 5-7 7-6(5) 10-6 win in one hour and 35 minutes over Croat-Brazilian duo of Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo on the grass courts of Devonshire Park last night. After losing the close first set, the Indo-Czech pairing fought back to win the second in the tiebreaker and dominated the super tiebreak to make the last-eight clash. The third seeds converted three of the five break points they got in the match. PTI