It was a double celebration for the Indo-Czech pair as the win gave the Mumbai-based Paes a milestone 50th title. After blasting past the world No.1 pairing of Americans Bob and Mike Bryan in the semifinals on Thursday, Paes and Stepanek gave a sublime performance to score a 3-6, 6-1, 10-8 win over Belarus' Max Mirnyi and Canada's Daniel Nestor.
Paes, who became the 24th player in ATP Tour history to complete 50 doubles titles, claimed $24,270 in prize money and 250 points. "It's really, really special. 50 tournaments takes a little doing, 600 matches takes a little bit of doing," said Paes .
The 38-year-old Paes also collected his third straight crown in Miami, having triumphed with Lukas Dlouhy in 2010 and Mahesh Bhupathi in 2011. Paes said, "It is awesome to have managed a three-peat here in Miami.
Next year, I hope to start another one." After dropping the first set, the Australian Open champions broke Mirnyi and Nestor twice in the second set to take the match into the deciding super tie-break.
The Indo-Czech tandem trailed 1-4 before winning six straight points to surge and closing out the match in 82 minutes. Stepanek, who made his sizzling returns count, said, "We fought through the match, we got on top of them in the second set. We were the more aggressive and creative team that's why we won."
Paes' next assignment is India's Davis Cup Asia-Oceania second round clash against Uzbekistan from April 6 to 8 on indoor clay at Namangan's sports complex. Paes will partner Bangalore's Rohan Bopanna in the doubles while Delhi boy Yuki Bhambri, ranked 263, will lead the singles line-up.
American collegian Sanam Singh, ranked 436, is the second singles player. The 44th-ranked Denis Istomin and the 265th-ranked Farrukh Dustov will do the singles honors for Uzbekistan
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