Paes-Granollers enter Nottingham Open quarters

Doubles partners: Leander Paes of India (L) and Spain's Marcel Granollers

Nottingham, June 24 (IANS) The Indo-Spanish tennis combine of Leander Paes and Marcel Granollers won the men's doubles first round match to enter the quarter-finals of the Nottingham Open here on Wednesday.

The top seeds needed only an hour and 14 minutes to beat the US-Filipino pair of Scott Lipsky and Treat Huey 3-6, 6-3, 11-9.

Lipsky and Huey started the match on a positive note, winning three out of six break points to take the opening set 6-3, but Paes-Granollers made a strong comeback, winning 12 out of 14 first serve points and also two break points.

Two double faults by their opponent made it easy for the Indo-Spanish pair to level things up by winning the second set 6-3 and push the match into the decider.

Paes-Granollers played sensibly to make the most of the super tie-break, easily winning it 11-9.

Next up, they will take on Australian-South African pair Chris Guccione and Andre Sa, who earlier beat Argentinians Juan Monaco and Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the first round.