Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos overcame defending champions Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz 6-4 4-6 10-6 to seal the second win of the year over the German team. Granollers and Zeballos improved their head-to-head record to 4-0 in their head-to-head against the German team, including a win in the Madrid Masters 1000 semifinals.
Granollers and Zeballos will aim to win their sixth title this year after Bucharest, Madrid, Roland Garros, US Open and Basel.
Both teams saved eight of the nine break points they faced.
Granollers and Zeballos earned the first break in the fifth game of the first set. They had to save eight break points before closing out the first set 6-4.
Both teams went on serve until the 10th game when Krawietz and Puetz earned the crucial break to win the second set 6-4.
Granollers and Zeballos went up a double mini-break to race out to 4-1 lead in the tie-break. Krawietz and Puetz pulled one of the two mini-breaks to reduce the gap to 2-4. Granollers and Zeballos earned their third mini-break to race out to 8-3. Krawietz and Puetz won three consecutive points to close the gap to 6-8, Granollers and Puetz closed out the tie-break 10-8 on their first match point.
Granollers and Zeballos lost to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the championships match of the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals.
“It’s super important to start the tournament well. At the end, every match counts, every set counts. So for us, starting with a victory was very important”, said Granollers.
“We knew that it would have been a tough match. Every match is like a final. The key was to stay positive at the start of the tie-break after losing the second set”, said Zeballos.
