The Argentine tennis player Horacio Zeballos and the Spanish Marcel Granollers lost this Saturday to the Dutch Wesley Koolhof and the Croatian Nikola Mektic by 6-3 and 6-4 in the semifinals of the London Masters doubles (ATP Finals) and said goodbye to the tournament of “teachers”.
The Mar del Plata Zeballos and Granollers, champions this year at the Argentina Open, in Rio de Janeiro and at the Masters 1000 in Rome, fell in one hour and 13 minutes of play at London’s O2 Arena.
The couple appeared in these semifinals with a physical handicap, since Granollers suffers a right shoulder injury.
Yesterday, due to these inconveniences and as a precaution, they decided to abandon the last match of the group stage against the Austrian Jurgen Melzer and the Frenchman Edouard Roger Vasselin when they were tied 6-6 in the opening set. Today, the Catalan was not in his fullness, he was treated for his ailments but he was not enough.
Qualified in advance after, in the previous group match Bob Bryan, Australian John Peers and New Zealander Michael Venus had snatched a set from Croatian Mate Pavic and Brazilian Bruno Soares (top favorites, who won 6-7, 6 -3 and 10-8 but they were eliminated), Zeballos and Granollers could not finish against Melzer-Roger Vasselin due to that injury to the Catalan’s right shoulder.
At the London Masters, a tournament that brings together the eight best couples of the season, Zeballos (35 years old, number 3 in the world doubles ranking) and Granollers defeated Peers-Venus in their previous matches 7-6 (7-2 ) and 7-5, and then to Pavic-Soares by 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (4-7) and 10-8.
Zeballos wanted to become the first Argentine tennis player to reach the doubles final in the masters tournament. However, it could not be: the left-hander from Mar del Plata repeated the performance of his compatriots Gastón Etlis and Martín Rodríguez, who reached the semifinals at the 2003 Masters, played in Houston, United States.
The other doubles semifinal will be played by Melzer and Roger-Vasselin against the American Rajeev Ram and the British Joe Salisbury.
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