Daily Briefing - Bhupathi-Paes Meet Mirnyi-Nestor In Doubles Final

© Getty ImagesMahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes are bidding for their first Sony Ericsson Open title together.

The veteran Indian duo of No. 3 seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes take on No. 2 seeds Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada in Saturday’s doubles championship at the Sony Ericsson Open. The winning team will receive 1000 South African Airways 2011 ATP Ranking points and split $200,200 while the runner-up team collects 600 points and $97,700.

Three of the finalists are in the final for the second straight year (except Nestor). In last year’s final, Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Paes defeated Bhupathi and Mirnyi 6-2, 7-5.
    
En route to the final, Bhupathi and Paes saved one match point in their semi-final win over Marach and Tipsarevic and in the quarter-finals they defeated No. 6 seeds Llodra and Zimonjic in a Match Tie-break. Meanwhile, Mirnyi and Nestor have lost one set en route to the final, in the first round against Spaniards F. Lopez and Verdasco.

Bhupathi and Paes are appearing in their first Sony Ericsson Open final together. Bhupathi, who is playing in Miami for the 12th year, was runner-up in 2008 (w/Knowles) and last year (w/Mirnyi). Paes won the title here for the first time last year and was runner-up in 2003 (w/Rikl) and 2007 (w/Damm).

Mirnyi is trying to capture his fifth title here in his sixth final. He won in 2003 (w/Federer), 2005-06 (w/Bjorkman) and ’09 (w/A. Ram). Last year he was runner-up (w/Bhupathi). Nestor, who has missed only one tournament here (2000) since 1994, is trying to earn his second title in Miami. He won in 2002 (w/Knowles) and was runner-up in 1997 (w/Knowles).

Bhupathi and Paes have a 15-3 match record on the season. They opened the season with a title in Chennai and followed with a runner-up at the Australian Open. They have a 24-11 career mark in finals together. Bhupathi is 47-39 lifetime in doubles finals while Paes is 45-33 in finals.

Mirnyi and Nestor come in with a 14-4 match record this year and they are trying to collect their second ATP World Tour title of the season and in their career together. They played twice in 2000, going 2-2, before reuniting this season. They won in Memphis on Feb. 20 and were semi-finalists at the Australian Open. Mirnyi is 38-34 lifetime in finals while Nestor is 72-46. The Canadian is No. 5 in the Open Era doubles titles list.