Open Sud de France and St. Petersburg Open doubles competition; title snatchers
The Australian – Britain duo of Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins captured their second career ATP World Tour doubles crown on Sunday after brushing aside the fourth seed pair of Eduardo Schwank and Marc Lopez in a three setter final
at the 2010 Open Sud de France Men’s doubles competition in Montpellier. The final score line was 6-2, 4-6, 10-7.
The unseeded pair who overpowered the top seed Max Mirnyi and Mahesh Bhupathi in the final eight, broke serve on two occasions to win the opening set however surrendered serve during the third game of the second set as Schwank
and Lopez battled back to level the scores.
The Argentine – Spanish tandem had won three straight Match Tie-breaks during the week, however their luck ran out in the title battle as Hutchins and Huss bounced back from a deficit of 4-7 to win the match in the end. They closed
out the battle in a time period of seventy nine minutes in Montpellier.
"We were lucky I think. We had been playing well throughout the match, however we missed a few shots we should not have at the start of the Match Tie-break. We were able to come back and win. I really enjoy playing with Huss, he
is a good friend of mine. We had some ups and downs in our career but when we agreed to play this event, I had a good feeling about it,” declared Ross after the match on Sunday.
Ross and Huss, as a result of this victory have improved their lifetime mark to 2-2 in the ATP World Tour finals, adding to their maiden crown captured in Beijing back in 2008. Individually, the thirty four year old Huss won his
fourth tour-level doubles crown from eleven finals, whereas Ross grabbed his second career trophy on the ATP World Tour.
"Great week. It has been a while since I won a crown and to play with Ross is a lot of fun. I think the key today was to serve well. Both of these guys return really well and have great ground strokes,” reflected Huss.
Lopez and Schwank, on the other hand were making their debut team run this week at the ATP World Tour 250 competition in Montpellier. The twenty eight year old Lopez had been fighting for his fourth crown of the year whereas the
twenty four year old Schwank was attempting to add to the title he grabbed in Stuttgart earlier in July this season.
In other action, the Italian duo of Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali captured their first ATP World Tour doubles crown together after hammering down the second seed Indian- Pakistan pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi
in two sets at the St. Petersburg Open Men’s doubles competition on Sunday. The final match score was 7-6(6), 7-6(5). The battle concluded in a time period of one hour and thirty six minutes.
Neither side was able to break serve throughout the match, however Starace and Bracciali took the clutch points in the two tie-breaks to register an ideal week, which had not seen them drop a single set on their way to the title
battle.
The thirty two year old Bracciali captured his second ATP World Tour doubles crown, adding to the title he won in Milan along with his partner Galimberti back in 2005. The 29 year old Starace on the other hand, grabbed his fourth
ATP World Tour doubles crown and second in Russia, after winning in Moscow along with Stakhovsky back in 2008.
The Indo – Pak Express on the other hand, who are attempting to take one of the four remaining positions at the season ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, as a result of this loss have dropped down to 1-5 record in
tour-level finals in 2010. They won their only title in Johannesburg this season, beating Beck-Levy in the finals.
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