Simon Aspelin and Knowle win U.S. Open men's doubles title

NEW YORK, Sep 7 - Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle captured their first Grand Slam doubles title with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner at the U.S. Open on Friday.

Playing in their first Grand Slam final together, Aspelin and Knowle avenged their loss to Dlouhy and Vizner in the round of 16 at the French Open earlier this year. It is the first time either player has won a Grand Slam title.



A runner-up at Wimbledon in 2004 with teammate Nenad Zimonjic , Knowle was finally broke through with Aspelin, who became the seventh Swede to capture a men's doubles Grand Slam title - joining Stefan Edberg, Andres Jarryd, Joakim Nystrom, Mats Wilander, Nicklas Kulti and Jonas Bjorkman .

"The last two days we have been playing great," Aspelin said. "But I felt a little nervous today with the first Grand Slam final, but we handled it well."

After winning three of the first four points in the final game, Vizner and Dlouhy rallied for the next two. But Vizner was unable to deliver a backhand return on Aspelin's serve on match point, hitting a lob wide. Knowle fell to the ground with his arms raised, pumping his fists as he became the first Austrian to win a Grand Slam men's doubles title in the Open era.

"I was happy that Simon served for it," he said. "It was looking great at 40-15 and they managed to come back to deuce, but I'm really happy we were able to win it."

Dlouhy and Vizner were on the losing end of a Grand Slam for the second time this year after falling at Roland Garros to Mark Knowles and Julian Nestor