Paes-Begemann storm into final of St. Petersburg Open

Leander Paes and his German partner Andre Begemann cruised to the final of St.Petersburg Open with a clinching a straight-sets win over Mikhail Elgin and Alexander Kudryavtsevin the men’s doubles event on Friday night.

The Indo-German pair took just over 90 minutes to defeat the Russians 6-3, 7-6 in the semifinal match and will meet either Dominic Inglot-Henri Kontinen or Konstantin Kravchuk-Adrey Kuznetsov in the summit clash on Sunday.

Paes and Begemann started off comfortably by winning the first set in just 35 minutes. However, the Russian pair came back with a spirited performance after being 0-2 down in the second set. Paes and his German partner won the tiebreaker 7-5 despite being behind 0-2 and then 2-5.

Paes-Begemann had booked their place in the last four after sweeping aside the Indian duo of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan 6-3, 7-5 in a one-sided quarterfinal contest.