Paes-Damm lose in semis

The third seeded Indo-Czech pair of Leander Paes and Martin Damm went out of the title race at Rome Masters series following a 3-6, 4-6 semi-final loss to the sixth-seed pair of Fabrice Santoro and Ninad Zimonjic.

The French-Serbian pair needed 59 minutes to pack off Paes and Damm, who won the Indian Wells Masters and were finalists at the Miami Masters this year.

Paes and Damm were let down by their serve and were broken four times. Failure to convert break points also proved costly for the Indo-Czech pair.

In the final, Santoro-Zimonjic, chasing their second title of the year, will meet the American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan.

The Bryans beat fourth seeds Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada 6-4, 5-7, 10-3.