2010 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals: Monday Doubles Review
Two doubles matches were scheduled for the day as the World Tour Finals (WTF) in London entered the second day on Monday. In the unique round robin stage, the four teams of Group B took to the courts to kick off their run for the
WTF title. The Indian Belarusian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi took on the team of Polish Lukasz Kubot and Austrian Oliver Marach in the afternoon session whereas the pair of Canadian Daniel Nestor and Serb Nenad Zimonjic met the team of Wesley Moodie
and d**k Norman in the evening.
Bhupathi and Mirnyi upped their head-to-head score against Kubot and Marach to 3-1 when they met on the court for their fourth career and season meeting on Monday. The Indian Belarusian duo recently won the title at the BNP Paribas
Masters only a week ago and it seems their form continued in Monday’s match as they secured a win for themselves in one hour and thirty-three minutes.
In a tooth and nail battle during the first set, both teams were neck to neck in winning the games taking the set into tiebreaker. The Indian Belarusian duo was quick to take the lead in the tiebreaker. Allowing a loss of only
two points, the pair won the tiebreaker, 7-2. The second set went close too, though Bhupathi and Mirnyi managed to take a two game lead and maintained it until the end winning the set 6-4. Winning the match 7-6(2), 6-4, this was the pair’s third straight set
win over Kubot and Marach.
While talking about the match Bhupathi said, “We started a bit tentative. I guess it's normal. It's the first match of the Finals. We've been playing well coming up here. Eventually we were able to keep that level up through
the match, which kind of helped us get through. We had our strategy set [in the first set]. We just kind of had to stick to it and execute more importantly. We didn't execute early, that's why we fell back a break early."
The pair hit three aces and committed four doubles faults, but it was the Belarusian giant’s long reach and net-play that made the difference.
Following these two teams on the court was the decorated pair of Nestor and Zimonjic as they met the team of Moodie and Norman. The second seeded team of Nestor and Zimonjic brushed aside their opponents in three minutes short
of an hour. Losing only six points on service, the pair extended their perfect head-to-head score against Moodie and Norman to 4-0. Enjoying straight set wins on all previous occasions, Nestor and Zimonjic did not break tradition as they enjoyed a 6-1, 6-2
win over the Roland Garros runner-ups.
Focusing on Norman in the first set and Moodie in the second, the Canadian Serbian duo pressurized their opponents to win points over them. After a breadstick win in the first set, the duo continued their form into the second set
and losing only two games to their opponents won the set 6-2. They managed to hit five aces with no double faults. Winning fifty-four of the eighty-three points, the pair breezed past their opponents to a 1-0 score in the round robin stage.
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