ATP Doubles: Lukasz Kubot e Marcelo Melo win tight Vienna final

No. 3 seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo edged out Great Britain's Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski in a tight Vienna doubles final 7-6 (5) 7-5 to win their second title of the season. 

Murray and Skupski, who started the match with an early 2-0 lead, also led 5-3 in the first set tie-break before Kubot and Melo won four points in a row to win the tie-break and steal the first set. 

Murray and Skupski also started the second set with a break but their lead was short-lived as Kubot and Melo quickly earned two breaks to take a 5-3 lead. 

Kubot and Melo failed to serve out for the match in the ninth game but kept their focus as they broke Murray and Skupski in the 12th game to seal a straight-set win.

"It was a very tight match. We knew it would be. They are such a great team," Melo said, per the ATP website. "I think we managed to play as we have been playing since the beginning of the tournament and it was very good. I think the match was decided point-by-point, a couple no-Ads here and there. But I think experiencing all this good energy from Vienna made us get another title."

Kubot and Melo win their third Vienna title 

Kubot and Melo claimed back-to-back titles in Vienna in 2015 and 2016.

"[This is a] very special place for us. It was another very good week here," Kubot said. "We are very happy to end it that way and we are looking forward to going to the Masters [1000] in Paris. We are happy with the result we have done and we'll keep going."

Elsewhere, No. 1 seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen defeated No. 2 seeds Max Purcell and Luke Saville 7-5 6-3 to lift the Nur-Sultan doubles title. 

Belgium's Gille and Vliegen claimed the first break of the match in the 12th game to win the opener. 

Gille and Vliegen, who didn't drop a single service game in the final, then claimed the lone break of the second set in the sixth game.

"It has been a short year with some ups and downs, but I think we can be very happy about our level,” Vliegen said. “We switched sides just before the restart, so we knew it was going to take some time and [the change] would not be giving us titles right away.

“We are very happy with the level we showed this week here in Kazakhstan, playing with a lot of confidence. I think we did a lot of things right, so we are very happy.”

Gille and Vliegen have now won their first team title of the season and improved to 4-1 in ATP finals played.

"I am very proud [of our finals record]. It was something that I was thinking about before the match,” Gille said. “I think last year we just did really well and then to have three titles in the bag already made me a lot less stressed today… I had a really nice feeling before the match and then you start it feeling good, feeling loose. To end the match winning again, getting the fourth [trophy], is just a great feeling.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2HNf4AF