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Bhupathi-Paes Top Llodra-Zimonjic In Cincinnati Final

ATP World Tour 2011 Season: Week 33

Paes, Bhupathi© Getty ImagesPaes and Bhupathi won their third title of the season.

Third seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes won their third title of the season Sunday, edging No. 4 seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic 7-6(4), 7-6(2) in the Western & Southern Open final. The victory gives the Indian Express their first title in 10 years at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati. "If you had asked me 10 years ago if we would win here again 10 years later, I would have started laughing that we'd still be playing," said Paes.

"It's a great feeling to come back and win in the summer. We didn't have so much rhythm in Europe, but we managed to put it together this week. We've beat some really big teams and are playing well. For us, it's a big confidence booster for the US Open, but we still have a lot of work to do there."

Bhupathi and Paes won 79 per cent of their service points and capitalised on early leads in both tie-breaks to win their first title since hoisting the trophy at the Sony Ericsson Open (d. Mirnyi-Nestor). They also triumphed in Chennai (d. Haase-Martin) to start the season. Neither team dropped serve in the match. "They are the hottest team and we had to play our best match of the year to beat them," Bhupathi said. "We served and volleyed great, and played an error free match. When we had chances, we took them."

The French-Serbian duo were looking to win their third straight title, having won the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington D.C. (d. Lindstedt-Tecau) and the Rogers Cup in Montreal last week (d. Bryans). The loss snapped an 11-match win streak.

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