Top seeds Tomas Cibulec and Robert Linstedt claimed the XL Bermuda Open doubles crown in a tale of two tiebreaks at Coral Beach yesterday.

Those who remained on the bleachers following the singles on the sun-drenched centre court turned the match into a Ryder Cup style Europe against USA contest, which Europe clinched in a super tiebreak following a typically frenetic foursome - the final score 6-7 (1), 6-3, 10-4.

Wildcard Americans Alex Kuznetsov and Jeff Morrison ? both first round casualties in the singles ? were surprisingly strong in the opening set, giving as good as they got against a team ranked just inside the world?s top 100.

With typical American gung-ho, hand-slapping enthusiasm they set to work in out-muscling their lower key, less flamboyant opponents.

Behind a booming Morrison serve, the Americans battled hard but no pair could pull away and the opener drifted into a tiebreak in which the Europeans collapsed.

Uncharacteristic mistakes allowed the underdogs to quickly establish a 3-0 lead before claiming the first set 7-1.

The Europeans ? Cibulec hails from the Czech Republic and Linstedt from Sweden ? then returned to the form that saw them breeze to the final with the loss of only nine games in two previous matches and their solid, decisive volleying and explosive cross-court winners saw them race to a 4-0 second set lead.

It was clear now that the game was going to end in a super tiebreak and although the Americans briefly rallied to pull it back to 5-3, the Europeans took the second comfortably.

They then picked up where they left off, hitting winner after winner that left Morrison with a wry smile on his face as he quickly found his team 6-0 down in the first-to-ten affair.

Again the Americans battled back but eventually succumbed 10-4 to give the top seeds their crown and a $5,200 team cheque.

Two finals going to deciding sets against the backdrop of a rare finals day of beautiful weather gave the Open a perfect send-off in its 20th year.