Pavic/Marach To Play Bryans For Doubles Title

Third seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic reached the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final of their careers on Saturday night when they defeated Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-6(4), 4-6 10-7 in one hour and 35 minutes. They will play against fourth seeds and five-time former champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in Sunday’s final.

Marach and Pavic have a 4-3 record in tour-level finals, including a 3-1 record this year, which started with a 17-match unbeaten run and three straight trophies at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open (d. J. Murray/Soares), the ASB Classic (d. Mirnyi/Oswald) and at the Australian Open, their first Grand Slam championship (d. Cabal/Farah). The duo also finished as runners up in the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament final (l. to Herbert/Mahut).

Marach and Pavic took a 5-3 lead, courtesy of a service break in the fifth game, but later failed to convert a set point opportunity — which was also a break point for Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin — at 5-4. While Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin won the first two points of the Match tie-break, a clever forehand return winner down the line past Roger-Vasselin at 4/4, handed the Austrian-Croatian team the advantage. Marach finished the 48-minute set with two consecutive smash winners.

Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin consolidated a break of Pavic’s serve on a deciding deuce point in the second set and soon earned a double-break cushion for a 4-1 lead. Although Bopanna lost his serve in the sixth game, the Indian-French tandem held on for a Match tie-break.

Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin took a 3/0 lead, then found themselves 7/5 up before Marach and Pavic won five straight points and completed the match when Bopanna hit a forehand long.