India’s Leander Paes-Purav Raja lift Knoxville Challenger title

Indian tennis duo of Leander Paes and Purav Raja have lifted the Knoxville Challenger title after clinching a comfortable straight sets win in the finals of the men’s doubles event here last evening.

The top-seeded pair produced a rich vein of form to sweep aside the American-Australian duo of James Cerretani and John Patrick Smith 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 in the summit showdown of the $75,000 hard court event that took place at the indoor hard court of Goodfriend Tennis Center tonight.

It is Paes and Raja’s first-ever title after joining forces in August this year.

Earlier, Leander Paes won three Challenger level titles this season pairing with Canadian Adil Shamasdin and American Scott Lipsky.

Raja, on the other hand, before partnering with Paes, had sealed the Bordeaux Challenger title with Divij Sharan besides making it to the summit showdown of the Chennai Open.