Top seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes (pictured above) combined to win their first team ATP title with a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory over Americans Scott Lipsky and David Martin at the Thailand Open in Bangkok on Sunday. The Czech-Indian duo fired five aces, won 74% of points on serve and converted two of four break points to secure the victory in 1 hr., 16 min. "It's a great feeling to win the whole thing and I think if we keep working like this we can win more tournaments," said Dlouhy. "I think we played high-level tennis and when they came back in the second set we just stepped it up and we just focused on the basic things. I hope that we can keep it like this and we can enjoy the rest of the year and we are looking forward to playing the Masters Series events." "It's always special stepping on the court with Lukas because not only does he complement my
style of playing but he's also teaching me things," commented Paes. "It's interesting that, after playing for so many years, to have a partner who's also teaching me a few things is really beautiful." Individually, the 35-year-old Paes has now won 40 ATP doubles titles, while Dlouhy, 10 years his junior, has compiled five. It is the second title in Bangkok for Paes, who also triumphed in 2005 with Paul Hanley (d. Erlich-Ram). On winning 40 titles, Paes said: "It is special and I think that one of the things I like to do is see my partner win a lot more. This is the challenge for me because I know if he's winning I'm winning too. I'm trying to step up Lukas, this is the fifth one that he's won, so now I'm trying to step up his wins because then mine will go up automatically." Currently No. 6 in the Stanford ATP Doubles Race, Dlouhy and Paes joined forces for the first time at Roland Garros in May and have since reached the finals at Halle (l. to Youzhny-Zverev) and the US Open (l. to Bryan-Bryan) and made a semifinal exit at Wimbledon (l. to Nestor-Zimonjic). They improve to a 21-6 record.
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