The doubles teams of the year:
Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic
Croatians Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic finished at the top of the ATP Doubles Team Ranking. They have won nine titles in 12 finals in their debut season as a team, including the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, Wimbledon, three ATP Masters 1000 titles in Miami, Monte-Carlo and Rome, the ATP 500 in Rotterdam, and two ATP 250 in Antalya and Eastbourne.
Mektic and Pavic won the Olympic doubles gold medal beating Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig in an all-Croatian final. It was Croatia’s first gold medal in tennis and the third time in the history of the Olympic men’s doubles that the same country won both gold and silver.
They won 18 consecutive matches during the 2021 season, becoming the first Croatians to win Wimbledon men’s doubles title and the first all-Croatian team to win a Grand Slam men’s doubles title.
“I think it’s a really good achievement, especially after the year we had. I was really looking forward to this happening. That was definitely one of the goals when I saw how things were going. I think it’s a pretty good achievement to crown the whole year of really nice wins and great tournament titles with the number 1 ranking”, said Mektic.
Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut
Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut claimed their second ATP Finals doubles title in three years in Turin beating Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 6-4 7-6 (7-0) in the championship match. The French doubles team avenged their round-robin defeat against Ram and Salisbury a few days earlier. The all-French doubles team came back from a set and a break down at 4-5 to beat Alexander Bublik and Andrey Golubev and clinch their second Roland Garros title last June.
Herbert and Mahut are one of the eight teams to complete a Grand Slam in doubles, claiming titles at 2015 US Open, 2016 Wimbledon, 2018 and 2021 Roland Garros and 2019 Australian Open.
“It is an amazing feeling winning here for a second time. We lost to them in the round robin, when they played amazing, and today we knew we had to play our best level. We played our best match of the week. Finishing the season like this is a great achievement”, said Nicolas Mahut.
