Leander Paes celebrates 40th birthday with Round 1 doubles victory at Aegon International

Indian tennis legend Leander Paes celebrated his 40th birthday with a victory in the men's doubles first round at the Aegon International here on Monday night.

Third seeds Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek advanced to the quarterfinals after posting a 5-7 7-6(5) 10-6 win in one hour and 35 minutes over the Croat-Brazilian pair of Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo on the grass courts of Devonshire Park.

After losing the close first set the Indo-Czech pairing fought back to win the second in the tiebreaker and dominated the super tiebreak to make the quarterfinals.

The third seeds converted three of the five break points they got in the match.