The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Paes-Damm duo triumphs

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Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007
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Paes-Damm duo triumphs

Indian Wells: Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic 6-2, 7-5 in the Pacific Life Open final on Sunday for his first title since the French Open nine months ago.

Nadal won his 18th career title without dropping a set, and without conceding a service game to No. 3 Andy Roddick in the semifinals or to 19-year-old Djokovic, the youngest finalist at Indian Wells in 17 years.

"It was a very great week for me, a very, very important week," Nadal said. "I have (gone) nine months without any title, but I came back with a big one."

Nadal jumped on Djokovic from the start, rushing 4-0 ahead after winning the first eight points and giving his Serb opponent only one point in his first two service games.

Djokovic lost his first set of the tournament in 29 minutes, and acknowledged he was nervous at the start.

"It's my first Masters Series final, first final of the really bigger tournaments," he said. "The stadium was more or less packed, like 15,000 people. It was a great atmosphere."

Djokovic said Nadal's experience probably helped him.

"Even though he's only 20 years old, he has played many, many finals and Grand Slams and Masters Series," he said. "So it's OK. I'm not satisfied with my game today, I could do better, but I have to be positive."

He finally pressured Nadal at 6-2, 2-1 when his only three break chances of the match were all saved by the Spaniard.

Djokovic double-faulted at 5-5 to give Nadal an opening, and he took it whipping a powerful backhand passing shot by the charging Djokovic. Nadal then held serve to finish the championship match that lasted just 93 minutes.

Second title

Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm captured their second ATP title of the season, beating sixth seeds Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel 6-4, 6-4 to claim the doubles crown.

The fifth seeded Indo-Czech pair, which shocked top seeds Bjonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in the semifinals, carried on their sublime form in the summit clash to win the USD 3.16 million event in their third final appearance of the season.

The results: Pan Pacific Open: Men: Singles Final: Rafael Nadal bt Novak Djokovic 6-2, 7-7;

Doubles Final: Leander Paes/Martin Damm bt Jonathan Erlich/ Andy Ram 6-4, 6-4;

Women: Doubles Final: Lisa Raymond/ Samantha Stosur bt Chan Yung-Jan/ Chuang Chia-Jung 6-3, 7-5; — Agencies

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