India's [ Images ] Mahesh Bhupathi [ Images ] and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic fell at the last hurdle as they went down 7-5, 6-7 (3/7), 10-7 to France's [ Images ] Fabrice Santoro [ Images ] and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in a nail-biting final at the Dubai [ Images ] Open on Saturday.

Third seeds Santoro and Zimonjic needed just over an hour and a half to claim the men's doubles crown. They hit nine aces compared to four from Bhupathi and Stepanek.

The unseeded Indo-Czech pair committed six double faults while the winning team played a controlled game with just two.