Top Seeds Granollers/Zeballos Battle To Halle Final

Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos opened their Terra Wortmann Open campaign with a pair of comfortable straight-sets victories earlier this week in Halle, but things were not so straightforward for the top seeds on Friday.

The Spanish-Argentine pairing recovered a 1-4 deficit before taking the opening set on a tie-break in their semi-final against fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek. Although Dodig and Krajicek responded by taking the second-set tie-break, it was the Granollers and Zeballos who prevailed by holding their nerve to clinch a 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 10-8 victory with their third match point.

They will now play for their first ATP Tour title since 2021 in Cincinnati in Sunday’s championship match, where they will face Roland Garros champions Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer or third seeds Tim Puetz and Michael Venus.

Mektic/Pavic Dig Deep For Final Berth In London
There was also Match Tie-break drama on Friday at the Cinch Championships in London, where second seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic came through a nail-biting semi-final clash with Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul to secure a maiden championship match appearance at the ATP 500 event.

Mektic and Pavic held their nerve from 7/7 in the Match Tie-break at The Queen’s Club to secure a 5-7, 6-2, 10-8 victory against their American opponents. The Croatians are hunting their third title of 2022 in London, after also lifting trophies this year in Dubai and Belgrade. Their opponents in Sunday’s championship match will be Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara or Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov.