Dodig/Krajicek Clinch Lyon Title

Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek lifted their first ATP Tour title together on Saturday at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon, downing second seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Marcelo Melo 6-3, 6-4.

The top seeds, who saved two match points in their quarter-final win over David Vega Hernandez and Rafael Matos, won 82 per cent (27/33) of their first-serve points against Gonzalez and Melo to triumph after 78 minutes.

“It is great, great for me,” Dodig said. “I had a really good time with Austin, we played some good tennis. I am really happy with this title. We have worked really hard the past couple of weeks. There were some tough losses but now we are on a good track and playing well.”

“I thought we served really well and returned well in big points,” Krajicek added. “Ivan played great. It was a good team effort. We have put in a lot of hard work in the past couple of weeks and finally got it going our way this week.”

Dodig and Krajicek were competing together for the fifth time, with their best result before this week a run to the final in Winston-Salem last August. The Croatian-American tandem arrived in Lyon having not won a match as a team this year.

Dodig, 37, has now earned 17 tour-level doubles trophies, including five ATP Masters 1000 crowns and two Grand Slam titles. He won the Lyon title with Edouard Roger-Vasselin in 2019. It is the fifth time the 31-year-old Krajicek has clinched a tour-level trophy, with all of his successes coming at ATP 250 events. It is the first time the American has won a trophy since Kitzbühel in 2020.

Gonzalez and Melo joined forces for the first time this week. The Argentine has lifted 11 tour-level titles with eight different partners, while Brazilian Melo has clinched 35 tour-level trophies, including nine Masters 1000 crowns.