Leander Paes-Andre Begemann Beaten in St. Petersburg Open Final

Leander Paes and men's doubles partner Andre Begemann suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the final of the St. Petersburg Open on Sunday, after failing to convert a match point in the super-tiebreak against their opponents Dominic Inglot and Henri Kontinen.

Paes and Begemann started well, and took the first set 6-4. The duo showed great accuracy with the first serve, and managed to keep Inglot and Kontinent at bay in the opening stages..

In the second set, the fortunes reversed, as Paes-Begemann were broken in the eight game, with their opponents closing out the set at 6-3.

The match went into a super-tiebreak as a result, and both duos fought tooth-and-nail. Paes-Begemann were one point away from winning the title at 9-8, but Kontinen and Inglot managed to survive and earned a championship point themselves later.

The Indo-German duo finally went down 10-12 in the super-tiebreak, to suffer their second defeat in the final an ATP tournament this year. The pair had lost the Winston-Salem Open final last month to Henri Kontinen and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

The defeat leaves Leander Paes without a men's doubles title on the ATP Tour this year. He had last won an ATP Tour event with South Africa's Raven Klaasen at Auckland in 2015.

Paes best performance at a Grand Slam event this year has been a quarterfinal appearance at the French Open. He had lost in the first rounds of the Australian Open and the US Open, and had bowed out from Wimbledon in the 2nd round.