Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic battled past Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4) in 1 hour and 51 minutes to win their third ATP doubles title of the season at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
Koolhof and Mektic held break points in two of Granollers’ service games and led 15-30 on the Spaniard’s serve at 6-5. Both teams were not able to break and the first set was decided by the tie-break.
Mektic and Koolhof earned two mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-2.
Granollers and Zeballos earned the only two break points at 3-2. Mektic saved the first break point with an ace. Koolhof save the second chance. Zeballos and Granollers saved two break points at 4-4 on the Zeballos’serve. Koolhof and Mektic won 85% of their first-serve points and saved a set point on serve at 5-6 in the second set. The Dutch and Croatian team earned an early mini-break in the tie-break. Koolhof swatted a volley away to seal the win.
“It came down to the tie-break, where anybody can win. We started bot tie-breaks well with a mini-break and maybe that was the reason as we were leading the whole tie-break. The score tells you what a high quality match it was”, said Mektic.
Koolhof won his first title in Indian Wells after losing last year’s final. Mektic claimed his second title at this tournament after winning in 2019 with Zeballos.
Koolhof and Mektic started their season with an ATP 250 title in Auckland, where they beat Granollers and Zeballos in the final, and went on to win in Rotterdam. They won the Nitto ATP Finals in London 2020.
Koolholf and Mektic moved up to number 3 spot in the ATP Race to Turin ahead of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, who lost to Zeballos and Granollers 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 10-8 in the semifinal.
“It means a lot because it’s one of the strongest Masters 1000 events because you have a lot of top singles players also playing. In last year’s final I lost 10-8 in the Match Tie-Break, so I had some unfinished business. To do here. We are very happy to have won this one. When I woke up this morning I was thinking that I had a 250, a 500 and hopefully now a 1000, so maybe the next one will be a major if we can capture one of the remaining three. It’s been an incredible start to the season. We have played six events and won three. So if we can keep a 50% ratio we will be very happy”, said Koolhof.
