Lindstedt/Tecau beat Melzer/Petzschner to reach the Doubles final – Wimbledon Championships 2012
Number five seed in the Doubles draw, the Swede-Romanian tandem of Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau outlasted the 10th seeded Austrian-German duo of Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner in the semi-final of the Wimbledon Championships on Friday. They went through three taxing sets before concluding victory at 6-4, 6-7(10), 6-4, 6-3, to earn a title shot in the final showdown of the grass court Grand Slam event.
It was a fairly poised contest with both teams throwing out their best each other for a place in the final. Melzer and Petzschner have been in fine form throughout the tournament and were bidding for their first Grand Slam doubles title this season. Their dream run came to an end by a thrilling performance from the Swede-Romanian duo, which took two hours and 36 minutes to wrap up the comprehensive victory in style.
The 10th seeds were badly damaged by their own error-ridden game play, as they coughed 10 costly double faults to assist their opponents to victory. Melzer and Petzschner registered barely one break point in the entire matchup, frittering away four priceless opportunities to finish on the losing side. On the other hand, Lindstedt and Tecau crafted a total of 10 break opportunities in the contest but only half of the conversions proved sufficient for them to get the better of their talented opponents.
Conventional game play was witnessed in the opening six games of the match, as both duos held their serves to take the scores to 3-3. Lindstedt and Tecau finally broke the shackles in the seventh game and broke into a 4-3 lead. They held their remaining two serves convincingly to take the opener at 6-4.
A trade of break points in the following set dragged the score line to 6-6 and brought a tie-break into play. Melzer and Petzschner eventually survived the extended tie-breaker round and pocketed the second set at 7-6(10) after a stiff fight. They went on to hold their next four serves in the third set but a cracking break point conversion in the crucial 10th game took the set away from them, with Lindstedt and Tecau winning at 6-4.
An early break of serve in the fourth game of the decisive set took Lindstedt and Tecau into a commanding 4-1 lead. The fifth seeds kept their lead in-tact and wound up the match at 6-3 to book a date with the wildcard pair of Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen in the final of the Wimbledon Doubles.
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