E-Paper
Paes-Rikl beaten in US Open doubles final
Canada's Daniel Nestor and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas took just 63 minutes to beat Paes and Rikl.
Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor defeated Leander Paes and David Rikl 6-3, 6-3 to capture the men's doubles title at the 17.8 million dollar US Open on Friday.
Nestor, of Canada, and Knowles, of the Bahamas, took just 63 minutes to dispatch India's Paes and Czech Rikl and pick up 400,000 US dollars in prize money.
"We felt really good about way we have been playing and we did a great job today focussing on our games and executing," Knowles said.
"We didn't allow those guys to make an impression on the return. The key to our partnership is we feed off each other really well."
This is the second Grand Slam win for Nestor and Knowles, who have been playing together on and off for 10 years.
They won the 2002 Australian Open, defeating Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro 7-6, 6-3.
Paes/Rikl were playing in their first Grand Slam together after winning four titles since teaming up in 2003.
They almost didn't make it to this year's US Open after Paes checked himself into a hospital in August 2003 complaining of headaches.
Doctors initially suspected cancer and he was eventually diagnosed with neurosysticercosis -- a parasitic infection causing a brain abscess.
He underwent drug treatment and left the hospital seven weeks later returning to his native India.
A month later he was back on the court practising and returned to competitive tennis at the Australian Open in January.
This marked the third doubles final of the year for Paes/Rikl.
