Paes celebrates birthday with win

Leander Paes (Extreme left)

Eastbourne (Britain) - Veteran Indian tennis player Leander Paes celebrated his 40th birthday with a win in the men’s doubles first round at the Aegon International here Monday.

Third seeds Paes and Radek Stepanek proceeded to the quarterfinals winning 5-7, 7-6(5), 10-6 in one hour and 35 minutes against Croat-Brazilian pairing of Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo on the grass courts of Devonshire Park.

After losing the close first set the Indo-Czech pairing fought back to win the second in the tiebreaker and then dominated the super tiebreak to advance to the last eight clash.

Errors such as four double faults by Dodig-Marcelo also made it easy for the third seeds who converted three of the five break points they got in the match.