Today can be an important day for the history of Argentine tennis: Horacio Zeballos may become the first national athlete to qualify for a doubles final in the Masters Tournament. The 35-year-old from Mar del Plata will go for a new victory in the ATP Finals alongside the Spanish Marcel Granollers, when they face the duo composed of the Dutch Wesley Koolhof and the Croatian Nikola Mektic (from 9AM with ESPN televising).
Not a minor detail: the European is in doubt after retiring from the last group stage match they played yesterday accusing a shoulder injury.
The Onion He already equaled a registered trademark in 2003 by his compatriots Gastón Etlis and Martín Rodríguez, who had qualified for the semifinals of this event that puts a bow to the circuit before being defeated by the North American brothers Mike and Bob Bryan (honored in the current edition with their names in the doubles group area).
Now Zeballos can not only become the first Argentine doubles player to play a final but also the second South American to play it, since previously the Brazilian Marcelo Melo (alongside Croatian Ivan Dodig in 2014 and Poland’s Lukasz Kubot in 2017) was the only one to do so, with losses to Bob and Mike Bryan and Finn Henri Kontinen and Australian John Peers, respectively.
It should also be remembered that Spanish Granollers became champion of the ATP Finals in 2012 together with his compatriot Marc López, an edition in which they prevailed against the Hindus Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna.
The duo made up of the Argentine – who has remained between third and fourth place in the world ranking of doubles players since last year – and the Spanish came to this instance as a result of their victories against the pairs made up of John Peers and Michael Venus (the last Monday) and Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares (on Wednesday), while yesterday it was the turn of the Austrian Jürgen Melzer and the French Edouard Roger-Vasselin, where they had to leave due to the aforementioned Granollers injury.
So far together they reaped four titles: the Montreal Masters 1000 (2019), the Buenos Aires ATP 250, the Rio de Janeiro ATP 500 and the Rome Masters 1000 (2020). They are excited about the finishing touch.
The other semifinal of the specialty will be held from 3pm when Melzer and Édouard Roger-Vasselin face the North American Rajeev Ram and the British Joe Salisbury.
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