ATP Finals | Granollers and Zeballos beat the No. 1s: they caress the semifinals

Marcel Granollers, champion of the ATP Finals in 2012 along with Marc López, and Horacio Zeballos, world number three in doubles, caress the semifinals after brilliantly winning over the number one couple, the Croatian Mate Pavic and the Brazilian Bruno Soares: 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4) and 10-8. The victory in two sets gave them the mathematical pass without waiting for the result of the other match of the day in the Bob Bryan Group, but after beating in three they need Peers and Venus to beat Melzer and Roger-Vasselin this afternoon. It would be the second time that the Spanish reached the crosses in the tournament in his fifth participation and the first for the Argentine, debutant in the Masters at 35 years old. This year they have won three titles together: Buenos Aires, Rio and Rome.

In the first set, Granollers and Zeballos saved three break points and managed to reach a tiebreaker in which they were superior. In the second set they raised three more and then had a match point with 6-5 that they could not take advantage of on an equal footing (there are no advantages). That way there was a new hotly contested tie-break in which the ranking leaders prevailed. The super-tiebreaker began with the dominance of the Spanish-Argentine couple (2-0), but a double fault by Zeballos cut the progression, before a minibreak caused by a powerful drive from Granollers and two good serves from the Catalan put them in clear advantage again. The feat was missing and Zeballos collaborated with his service, very effective throughout the game. A serve of his that Soares could not subtract well consummated success.

“I would never have dreamed of these goals in doubles. It gives me great joy and I know that I can continue to improve many things, so every day I want to jump onto the pitch, “said Zeballos. Granollers, for his part, was prudent: “We don't have to think further. We have to think about the last game in the group and continue with the same dynamic. Thinking beyond is useless. We are not yet classified. “

Schedule and results of the ATP Finals.