Leander Paes and Nenad Zimonjic failed to cap their debut appearance at the Tennis Masters Cup with a victory, as they went down in three sets to Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra in the title clash in Shanghai on Sunday.
The Indo-Serbian pair lost 6-7(6), 6-3, 7-6(4) to the sixth seeded duo of Santoro and Llodra in the Masters final.
The Frenchmen, who upset the top seeds Mike and Bob Bryan in the semi-final on Saturday, lost the opening set at the tie-break but put pressure on the Paes serve in the second set. Santoro showed his experience at the net in the second set, matching Paes on the volleys to take it 6-3.
Following the latest ATP rules, the third and final set went into the tie-break, and after a good start the sixth seeds Paes and Zimonjic conceded it at 4-7.
The teams had split their two career meetings, both of which were this year. The Frenchmen won 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals of Masters Series Hamburg but Paes and Zimonjic had their revenge later in the year with a 7-6, 7-5 win in the Masters Series Madrid semifinals.
Llodra and Santoro went 2-1 up in head to head and won their first Tennis Masters Cup title on Sunday. They had lost to the Bryan brothers 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 in Houston in 2003 in their only other Masters Cup final.