Kontinen/Roger-Vasselin Triumph In Montpellier
Henri Kontinen and Edouard Roger-Vasselin lifted their second tour-level title as a team on Sunday, following a 6-2, 7-5 victory against Jonathan Erlich and Andrei Vasilevski in the Open Sud de France final.
The top seeds saved all seven break points they faced to beat Erlich and Vasilevski in 66 minutes. Kontinen and Roger-Vasselin doubled their ATP Tour team title count, following their success at the 2019 Stockholm Open.
“We are very happy to win this tournament this week,” said Roger-Vasselin. “We were better and better in each match. That is a good point. Now we are looking forward to the rest of the season.”
Kontinen and Roger-Vasselin dropped just one set en route to the ATP 250 title. In the first round, the Finnish-French duo rallied from a set down to overcome Hubert Hurkacz and Szymon Walkow 6-7(5), 6-2, 10-8.
Roger-Vasselin is the first player to win three doubles titles at this event. The 37-year-old previously triumphed in Montpellier alongside Nicolas Mahut in 2012 and Ivan Dodig in 2019.
Erlich and Vasilevski were attempting to clinch their first ATP Tour doubles trophy as a partnership in their second final. Last year’s Pune finalists beat fourth seeds Divij Sharan and Igor Zelenay en route to the championship match.
“We are pretty pleased with the week,” said Erlich. “We had three great victories with great energy. Making the final is a great achievement for us. Unfortunately, today we played against a top class team… It was exciting to be in a final again after a tough year. We keep going. [This week] gave me a lot of energy and enthusiasm to keep going for the rest of this year. Hopefully we will [play] a few more finals.”
Kontinen and Roger-Vasselin receive 250 FedEx ATP Doubles Ranking points and share $7,550 in prize money. Erlich and Vasilevski collect 150 points and split $5,530.
Did You Know?
Kontinen has an 80 per cent success rate in tour-level doubles finals. The 30-year-old holds a 24-6 record in tour-level championship matches.