France’s Michael Llodra (right) and Fabrice Santoro hold their trophies after defeating India’s Leander Paes and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia-Montenegro in the final of the men’s doubles at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai yesterday.(Photo Source: Sina) 

French duo Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro bid farewell to their partnership on Sunday by ralling past Leander Paes and Nedad Zimonjic 6-7(6), 6-3, 7-6(4) to claim the ATP Masters Cup doubles title.

It's a long road for Llodra and Santoro to lift a year-ending trophy, not only because that Sunday's victory took 2 hours and 36 minutes, but also the pairing, of which Llodra will devote himself to the singles event next year, had lost to Bob and Mike Bryan in five sets in Houston in 2003 final.

The French pair converted 3 out of a total nine break points with 2 aces against 2 double faults throughout the match, while Paes and Zimonjic cracked 8 aces but committed also 4 double faults.

Breaking twice the pair of Paes from India and Zimonjic from Serbia and Montenegro in the second set, Llodra and Fabrice managed to force the final into decider and held on to force tiebreaker without losing any of their serves.

Though Paes and Zimonjic played a desperately attacking game, the French pair firmly kept their mind and claimed five points in a row before taking the decisive tiebreaker.

With Sunday's glory taking, Llodra and Santoro became the first French winners of the year-ending championship since Guy Forget teamed with Jakob Hlasek to win the title in 1990.

An all-French pair has never won the season-ending championship, although in addition to Llodra and Santoro's runner-up finish in 2003, Forget and Yannick Noah reached the final of the 1986 Masters Doubles in London before losing to Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd.

In 2005, Llodra and Santoro had their quest for a third straight Australian Open title snapped in the quarterfinals. They
qualified for the Masters thanks to a very strong year at ATP Masters Series events, winning at Rome, becoming finalists at Hamburg and reaching semis at Cincinnati and Monte Carlo.

Next year, Santoro will compete on the same side of the net with Masters Cup's final opponent Zimonjic as Llodra plans to concentrate on singles in 2006 and Paes will play with Martin Damm.