Redditch's Lloyd Glasspool and Czech partner Adam Pavlásek defeated in Paris Masters mens doubles final

Glasspool who had never featured in a masters 1000 final before this event, fell too a 6-3, 3-6, 5-10 defeat with Czech Pavlásek against Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and Croatian Nikola Mektić.

In what was the first time the Brit and Czech had ever played an event as a doubles pairing. The pair managed to defeat the fourth and fifth seeds on route to the final.

The pair failed to drop a single set in the four games on the miraclous run that followed on from a poor recent run from Glasspool, which saw him go out of the first round in his two previous tournaments before this one, in Stockholm and Vienna.

The man born in the West Midlands is having one of the best seasons of his 12 year old professional career too date. He has won multiple titles in a calendar year for the first time and this final in Paris has led to him playing the biggest match of his life, having not got past the Quarterfinal of a masters event in the 16 tournaments he played before this week.

The match started in the best possible way for the pair, but were pegged back as they fell too a second set defeat and an agonising defeat on the deciding first too 10 point tiebreak.

Both pairs both once in the match but the Brit and his partner struggled on serve, winning just 67% of points to their opponents 74% that included losing half of their points on their second serve.

The pair did take the 27 minute first set dropping just six points on serve, two holds to love allowed the pathway to get the decisive break late on in the set after surviving a seven minute dogfight the game before to hold.

In Glasspool's 11th final on hard, the 30 year old had won just three of the previous 10 he had played, the last two hard court finals he played were both victories though, the first in Brisbane in January and the most recent win coming a month ago in Japan in the 500 event with fellow Brit Julian Cash.

The Brits fight for a third successive hard court title took a huge blow as the 30 year old pairs quality on serve saw a big drop off.

They managed too drop five less points on first serve that allowed Koolhof and Mektić to attack the pairs second serve on return to take advantage of the pairs serving woes.

The pair struggled from the start, instantly allowing their opponents two chances at a break, but crucially saving both. The newky formed paie struggled to make a dent on return, the eventual break was inevitable with the pair unable to grind their way to a tiebreak late on. That allowed the Dutchman and Croatian to break and serve for the set, an invitation they duelly accepted.

It was the third time in the four finals he has featured in this year that the match went to a deciding match tiebreak, in which all three saw the Brit win the first set.

In those two prior he managed to win both, but on this occasion he was unable too, with the breaker starting as it was meant to go on for the pair. Instantly going 3-0 down, Koolhof and Mektić just like in the set previous, didnt allow their opponents a sniff on return.

The Brit and his Czech partner were only able to win one point on return which led the pathway to the inevitable mini double break at the end of the tiebreak to round out the 10-5 defeat.