Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek made a stupendous start to their campaign at the year-end ATP World Tour finals as they shocked second seeds Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares in a closely-fought Group B match here on Tuesday.
The seventh-seeded Paes and Stepanek pair beat the Austria-Brazilain combination 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 in one hour and 42 minutes.
Before prevailing in the super tie-breaker, Paes and Stepanek overcame some anxious moments towards the end as their rivals fought hard.
Paes and Stepanek serevd throughout well but it was in the 12th game of the second set, when the Indian dropped his serve from 40-15 to make it a more thrilling contest, stretched to a Super Tie-breaker.
Paes and Stepanek had four match points but Peya and Soares saved three of the them.
Also on Tuesday, Rafael Nadal moved within a win away from finishing the year as the World No. 1 after starting his campaign with a 6-3, 6-2 win over David Ferrer.
Nadal broke Ferrer in the opening game of the match, but the latter hit back with an immediate break of his own.
That was the last time the 31-year-old troubled Nadal, who was gifted another break for a 4-2 lead, thanks to a pair of careless forehands from the out-of-sorts Ferrer, who made 33 unforced errors.
On Monday, Swiss Wawrinka, making his debut at the Tour Finals, scored a 6-3, 6-7(0), 6-3 win over Czech Tomas Berdych in Group A.
The results:
Singles: Group A: Rafael Nadal bt David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2; Stanislas Wawrinka bt Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-7(0), 6-3.
Group B: Juan Martin del Potro bt Richard Gasquet 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-5.
Doubles: Group A: Mariusz Fyrstenberg & Marcin Matkowski bt Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi & Jean-Julien Rojer 6-3, 7-6(8).
Group B: Leander Paes & Radek Stepanek bt Alexander Peya & Bruno Soares 6-3, 5-7, 10-8; David Marrero & Fernando Verdasco bt Marcel Granollers & Marc Lopez 6-1, 6-4.