Leander Paes wins 54th title with 98th partner

Leander Paes and Marcin Matkowski made the most of their debut outing by winning the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. The Indo-Polish got the better of second seeds Jamie Murray and John Peers 3-6 7-6(5) 10-5 in the men's doubles final.

Paes deserves a lot of credit for holding it all together in these troubled times. It's common knowledge that the multiple Grand Slam champion and his estranged partner, Rhea Pillai, are fighting for the custody of their young daughter. Paes had also starred in the Davis Cup World Group playoff tie against Serbia recently.

According to a report in atpworldtour.com, Murray and Peers did not drop serve in the match, but were edged out in the second set tie-break as well as the super tie-break as Paes and Matkowski prevailed in 90 minutes.

"In a match like that, especially in the final, the margins between winning and losing are very small," Paes was quoted, as saying, in the report. "What I really like about Marcin's game after playing with him this week is that he is a student of tennis. On the court, he's always looking to improve. We didn't play our best tennis in the beginning today. We were playing a team that were very confident. They don't give you much rhythm. But then when we were down, we found our groove and it was pretty much a different story then."

For the record, Matkowski was Paes's 98th different doubles partner. The 41-year-old legend now has 54 ATP titles. He has won at least one ATP title each year since 1997. Kuala Lumpur marked his first success since triumphing at the 2013 US Open with Radek Stepanek.

"Obviously, I'm very happy to play with Leander," Matkowski was quoted, as saying. "He's a great player. We'll try to play a few more tournaments in the fall, in the indoor tournaments in Europe. We've enjoyed a very good start and we look forward to continuing this way."

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