ATP Indian Wells: Nikola Mektic and Horacio Zeballos claim doubles title
Croatian Nikola Mektic and Argentina's Horacio Zeballos have won the BNP Paribas Open doubles title.
Mektic, 30, and 33-year-old Zeballos surprised No. 6 seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the Indian Wells Masters final 4-6 6-4 10-3.
Kubot and Melo started the match with a break but Mektic and Zeballos broke back immediately in the second game.
Mektic and Zeballos saved two break points in the third game but Kubot and Melo were quickly up again by a break as they broke the unseeded duo in the fifth game.
Kubot and Melo saved a break point in the eighth game, before they served out for the first set in the 10th game.
Mektic and Zeballos had a chance to go up by a break early on in the second set but failed to convert any of their two break point chances in the fourth game.
However, Mektic and Zeballos kept winning their service games easy as they forced a decider after winning the 10th game on a deciding point.
Kubot and Melo never recovered from losing the second set as Mektic and Zeballos dominated the match tie-break to win their maiden team title.
Mektic and Zeballos won 76 percent of their first serve points, converted 2-of-6 of their break point chances and saved 3-of-5 of Kubot and Melo's break point opportunities in just less than an hour and a half of action.
Mektic and Zeballos, who debuted as a pair at the Rio Open last month, were playing together just for the second time.
Mektic and Zeballos clinched some big wins on their way to winning the Indian Wells title.
Mektic and Zeballos' Indian Wells campaign also featured wins over Kyle Edmund and Neal Skupski, top-seeded Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, fifth-seeded Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, as well as third-seeded Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2XZ53nA
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