Mahut/Roger-Vasselin beat Hanley/Murray to lift the doubles trophy – Open Sud de France 2012
Local crowd at the Arena Montpellier, in Montpellier, France, was in for a surprising result on Sunday night, as the unseeded home favourite duo of Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin took down the third seed pair of Paul
Hanley and Jamie Murray in the final of the Open Sud de France. The French underdogs came up with a surprising performance in the title round match and overwhelmed the Australian-British duo in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6(4), to lift the doubles trophy in front
of the home crowd.
Mahut and Roger-Vasselin has been absolutely belligerent in the entire tournament and didn’t lose a single set en route to the final. They stunned the top-seeded British team of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in the quarter-finals
and repeated the similar sort of magnificence in the Sunday’s matchup to win the double championship title in Montpellier. It was the first ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour-level title for Mahut and Roger-Vasselin, giving them immense confidence
for the upcoming tournaments.
"It means a lot to me," said Roger-Vasselin, "Nicolas and I won a few titles at the Challenger level, but to win a title on the ATP World Tour, especially in France, it's wonderful. We want to play again in Marseille, so hopefully
we get in. If we can play as well as we did here, maybe we'll have a chance to win again."
Mahut and Roger belted 12 aces and clinched 39 out of 42 first serve points en route to victory. Only one break point was registered in the entire contest and it can from the French side in the opening set. Hanley and Murray came
back strongly in the following set and held their serves throughout to impose a tie breaker round into play. The third seeded duo failed to match the guile of the French opponents and crumbled in the last moments of the match to finish on the losing side in
the end.
"We had a great week, playing well each round," said Mahut. "Today, I feel we both served very well. We had one break point in the first set, and we made it, and then won the tie-break in the second set. It's great to win a title
in France."
The other Frenchman, Gael Monfils, failed to deliver in the singles final later that night and fell to the top seed Czech competitor, Tomas Berdych, in the title round.
Tags: