Melbourne: Seventh seeds Leander Paes and his partner Martin Damm will stake claim on the men's doubles title at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament after claiming a straight-set victory in the semifinals on Thursday.
The Indo-Czech pair ended the run of an unseeded duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland by scoring 6-2 6-4 win at the Margaret Court Arena.
Paes and Damm lived up to their higher seedings by playing a clinical game against their inexperienced opponents and completely outperforming them in almost all the departments during their 79-minute encounter.
Paes is making his second final appearance here, the first time being in 1999 when he was top seed with compatriot partner Mahesh Bhupathi and the duo were upset by fifth seeds Patrick Rafter of Australia and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden.
The Indian would look for a similar upset, albeit in his favour this time, as he and Damm challenges top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan in the title clash.
(With PTI inputs)
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