India’s Leander Paes and Purav Raja clinched their first title after joining hands in August, lifting the Knoxville Challenger title on Sunday after registering a fighting win in the men’s doubles category in Tennessee.
The top-seeded pair battled through two consecutive tie-breakers to defeat the American-Australian duo of James Cerretani and John Patrick Smith 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 in the final of the $75,000 hard-court event at the Goodfriend Tennis Center.
Earlier Paes and Raja got past Ruan Roelofse and Joe Salisbury 7-6(4), 6-3 in the semi-finals. Paes has won three other Challenger level titles this season – Leon and Ilkley events with Canadian Adil Shamasdin and Tallahassee trophy with American Scott Lipsky.
Paes also made a number of semi-final appearances at ATP 250 level and has not lost a final this season. Raja, before teaming up with Paes, had won Bordeaux Challenger with Divij Sharan and also made the final of the ATP 250 Chennai Open.
