Paes outsmarts Delgado for title

Paes, who admitted to being below par today as compared to the last few days, found in Delgado an opponent who played a game very similar to his own. In the first two games, both players treaded warily and held onto serve, giving away only a point each.

Then Paes began moving in early, unlike his last two matches where he stayed back and played a solid baseline game most of the time. Against Takahiro Terachi and Satoshi Iwabuchi in the semis and quarters, Paes allowed the Japanese to make mistakes. Against Delgado, he couldn8217;t afford to do that, he was therefore more combative.

The British fifth-seed hit some superb backhand cross-court shots whenever he could, that Paes had simply no answer to, but in the end, when it mattered like in the tie-break, he was just not able to beat Paes at the net. As Paes said later, 8220;Both our fortes are volleys. And it went down to the wire. It eventually came down to who took the net away.8221;

In the second tie-break, Paes played a beautiful drop volley for his first match point. Delgado answered with an ace, but was then out-slugged and hit the tape to give Paes his third Challenger title this year. Said Paes at the end: 8220;The days you8217;re not playing your best tennis, you just have to play solid. Today was huge, I didn8217;t play great, but I went in and played smart.8221;