Romanian-Indian pairing Florin Mergea-Rohan Bopanna on Saturday advanced to the final of the doubles event at the 2015 ATP Would Tour Finals in London after defeating Ivan Dodig (CRO)/Marcelo Melo (BRA), 6-4 6-2 in the first semi-final of the tournament.
No. 8 Merge-Bopanna, the last to qualify for the event, prevailed in 59 minutes and on Sunday’s final it will meet the winner of the second semi-final fixture Horia Tecau (ROU)/Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) versus Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan (US).
In the first set, the Romanian-Indian double won a break at 2-2, keeping the advantage throughout and winning the first set 6-4. In the second set, the double managed a break at 1-1, but the opponents recouped their game immediately. Mergea-Bopanna managed a new break, a third consecutive one, against 3rd-seeded opposing pairing, becoming unstoppable, with Mergea serving for the match (6-2).
The Dodig-Melo double, which had its contribution to the qualification of the Romanian-Indian pairing at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals thanks to its win in the doubles final at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Paris against Vasek Posposil/Jack Sock, was leading Mergea/Bopanna 2-1 in head-to-head contests before today’s fixture. Mergea-Bopanna won the first meet in 2014, at the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters, 6-4 3-6 10-7, after which Dodig-Melo bounced back in the quarter-finals at the 2015 Cincinnati Masters, 6-1 1-6, 14-12, and continued its winning streak in the quarter-finals in Paris-Bercy, 7-5 6-7 (4) 12-10.
Dodig-Melo played the 2014 final of the ATP Would Tour Finals in London. More…