Leander Paes records ATP Aegon Championships quater-final win on 42nd birthday

LONDON: Leander Paes celebrated his 42nd birthday by reaching the quarter-finals of the ATP Aegon Championships with Canadian partner Daniel Nestor at the Queen's Club, here today.

The third seeded Indo-Canadian pair fought off the challenge of unseeded Viktor Troicki and Roberta Bautista Agut 7-6 (3) 3-6 10-7 in the opening round of the Euro 1,696,645 grass court tournament.

It took Paes and Nestor an hour and 21-minutes match to douse the challenge of their unseeded rivals. They next face the Spanish pair of Marc Lopez and multiple singles Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal.

The two pairs broke each other once before Paes and Nestor sealed the opening set via tie-breaker. In the second set, they could convert none of the six chances they got and dropped serve one time which was enough for Troicki and Roberta Bautista Agut to draw parity in the match.

However, Paes and Nestor used all their experience to prevail in the Match tie-breaker.