Geneva Open: Paes-Lipsky pair defeat Robredo-Marrero in three-set marathon to sail into second round; Raja, Sharan crash out

Leander Paes and Scott Lipsky on Tuesday marched into the second round of the ATP Geneva Open by overcoming a strong challenge Tommy Robredo and David Marrero in the opening round. Meanwhile, it was curtains for Purav Raja and Divij Sharan who crashed out of the Lyon event.

The Paes-Lipsky pair squandered many chances in the opening set but regrouped in time to tame the fighting team of  6-7 (3) 7-6(3) 10-4 in the first round of the Euro 482,060 clay court event.

Meanwhile, at the ATP 250 event in Lyon, Raja and Sharan made an exit with a 6-3 2-6 2-10 defeat against Benoit Paire and Thomas Paire in the first round.

Also making a first round exit from the Lyon event were the wild card entrants Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Christopher Rungkat, who lost 3-6 6-3 5-10 to the formidable Australian team of Nick Kyrgios and Matt Reid.

Paes and Lipksy had two break chances in the sixth game but could not convert. They had a set point in the 10th game too but the Spaniards saved the chance on the deciding point.

Another set point went abegging in the 12th game when Robredo was serving to stay alive in the set as the Spanish team forced a tie-breaker.

Paes and Lipsky opened up a 3-0 lead in the tie-breaker but lost seven straight points to surrender the opening set.

In the second set, Robredo and Marrero got the early lead when they broke Paes and Lipsky in the fourth game on the deciding point. The Indo-American team though broke back and saved break chances in the eighth game to make it 4-4.

The set was pushed to a tie-breaker again and the Paes- Lipsky pair raced to a 4-0 lead. They converted their third of the five set points to make it one set apiece.

In the deciding match tie-breaker, Paes and Lipsky opened up a 5-0 lead and easily closed the match in their favour.