Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi moved to the top of the world doubles rankings in 2011 after their triumph at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

The pair, who have been playing together since the Aircel Chennai Open earlier this year, beat second seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 6-7 (5) 6-2 10-5 in a pulsating encounter.

Paes and Bhupathi were up a break in the first set, but failed to close it out, and Mirnyi-Nestor came through the tie-break quite easily.

In comments quoted on www.sonyericssonopen.com, Bhupathi said: "We had a chance to win that set but we didn't take it - threw away the breaker pretty much."

But the third seeds stepped up their game in the second, breaking their opponents twice to take the match into a sudden death situation.

The newly reinstated Indian Express then steamed through to 10 points to take the title.

"The key [to us winning] was just fighting as a team. Like Leander said, we didn't play our best match of the week. All four of us were tentative in the beginning," continued Bhupathi.

However, the 36-year-old was cautious about the duo's prospects for the rest of the season, despite overtaking American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, who beat them in the Australian Open final, in this year's rankings.

"It's still early for us. The season is broken down into four segments - this is just the first of them. If we're still No. 1 after the US Open, then we'll start getting excited," he said.

This is the Indian duo's second title this year after the season-opening Chennai Open. They won two French Opens and one Wimbledon title prior to splitting up in 2006.