Granollers/Lopez shock Bryan Brothers in the opening round robin match – ATP World Tour Finals 2012
Spanish duo of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez made a perfect start at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals by upsetting the top seeds and three-time former winners, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, in their first round robin match of
Group A.
The Spaniards clinched the opener but went down in the second set. However, they saved a match point in the super tie-breaker to win 7-5, 5-7, 11-9 in one hour and 39 minutes.
This is Granollers and Lopez’ first win over the most successful doubles team in the history of tennis. The Spanish team had suffered three straight losses against the number one team in this season. The American brothers have
the honour of finishing eight years as the top ranked team out of the last 10.
Though, it was the Spanish pair’s day, as they captured this crucial win at the season ending championships. Bryans drew the first blood, breaking Granollers and Lopez in the second game to take a 2-0 lead but the right-handers
did not take much time to square it off at 2-2. The following six went with serves, equalising the score at 5-5 but the Spanish combination grabbed two consecutive games after that to win 7-5.
Granollers/Lopez and Bryans did not provide each other even a single break opportunity in the first 11 games of the second set, taking the score to 6-5 in favour of the latter. However, the Spanish team could not deal with Bryan
Brother’s attacking returns in the 12th and failed to hold their serve, going down 5-7.
With the winning momentum on their side, Bryans captured four of the opening five points of the match tie-breaker to gain a 4-1 lead. However, Granollers and Lopez kept cutting their rivals’ lead slowly, coming to level terms at
8-8. Bryans won the following point to create a match point but they lost three on the trot after that to lose it 9-11.
Other two pairs in the four-team Group A are Pakistani-Dutch duo of Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean Julian Rojer, and Indian-Czech tandem of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek. Those two combinations will take on each other in a night
match on Tuesday.
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