Dlouhy & Paes Win Sony Ericsson Open Doubles Title

© Getty ImagesLukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes capture their first title of 2010.

Third seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes claimed their first title of the season Saturday when they defeated fourth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi 6-2, 7-5 in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Miami.

Dlouhy and Paes took an early 2-0 lead after winning sudden-death points at deuce in the first two games and never let their opponents back into the first set. The team also grabbed an early lead in the second set only to give it back when broken for 3-all. But Dlouhy and Paes, who was his typically aggressive self at the net, broke at 5-all and then served out the match.

The winners of Roland Garros and the US Open last year, Dlouhy and Paes could be the team in 2010 to break the 1-2 duopoly of the Bryan brothers and Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic as the world’s best two doubles teams.

As beaten finalists in Brisbane and Dubai earlier this season, the Indian and Czech Republic teammates are now 3-7 lifetime in finals. Paes won his 43rd tour-level title while Dlouhy claimed his eighth.

Dlouhy said: “Playing with [Leander], it's always great because he has my back always. When I'm struggling with something, he's always with me on the same side and always tells me that nothing happened. We make it like a team. So it always helps you when you know that you are together, you are like brothers. That's the magic of the team, I think.”

Paes said: “What's great actually about doing well this week is there's no pressure now for the rest of the clay court season. We've got to a final in Brisbane and got to quarters at the Aussie Open. Now there's no pressure. Now we're just playing for cream on the top.”

Paes was runner-up at the Sony Ericsson Open in 2003 (w/Rikl) and ’07 (w/Damm).

Mirnyi suffered his first loss in five finals at the event. He has won the Sony Ericsson Open with three different partners – 2003 (w/Federer), 2005-06 (w/Bjorkman) and last year (w/Ram).