India's Leander Paes and his German partner Andre Begemann lost the men’s double final at the St Petersburg Open to Britain’s Dominic Inglot and Finland’s Henri Kontinen in a hard fought three-set encounter on Sunday.
The Indo-German duo lost 6-4, 3-6, 10-12 in a match that lasted for 79 minutes. Paes and Begemann won the opening set 6-4 with utter ease. However, the lost the next two sets with the third going down the wire till their opponents bagged it 10-12.
In the super tiebreak, Paes and Begemann took an early lead of 3-0 but, the Brit and Finnish pair made a comeback to tie it at 8-8. At 9-8, Paes and Begemann celebrated as Inglot’s volley was called wide. However, the celebrations were cut short as the video replay confirmed the ball had touched the line. Inglot and Kontinen produced a good serve and volley strategy to make it even on the replay. Paes saved a match point for his team at 9-10, however, it was a cruel end when Paes made an error that cost him the match.
Paes last won an ATP men's doubles title, along with South Africa's Raven Klaasen, in the 2015 New Zealand Open. Paes is yet to find the right combination and has played with the likes of Marcel Granollers, Sam Groth, John Peers, Lukasz Kubot, Jeremy Chardy and now Begemann.