Roland Garros: Horacio Zeballos, once again the protagonist, is in the semifinals of the doubles tournament

PARIS.- Installed in the Top 10 in the world of men’s doubles years ago, Horace Zeballos he returns to being the protagonist; Now, in the decisive stages of Roland Garros. The left-hander from Mar del Plata, 6th in the weekly classification of the tour in pairs, advanced to the semi-finals in the Parisian tournament alongside Spaniard Marcel Granollers, by beating the Dutch Wesley Koolhof and the British Neal Skupski 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. In search of the grand final, the Hispanic-Argentine couple will face the Croatian Ivan Dodig and the American Austin Krajicek, who eliminated the number 1 of the contest, Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 3-6, 7-6 (11-9) and 7-6 (12-10).

Zeballos, 37 years old and trained by Alejandro Lombardo, returns to the semifinals in Paris after nine seasons; his previous best performance, when he reached the round of the top four, had been in 2013, with Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas as his partner. “It’s nice to walk around here again, when the locker rooms are already beginning to be empty because the vast majority left and few of us remained, it’s a nice experience. I think this time things were giving. Today the level of doubles is very even; everyone plays well, everyone hits hard, there are more and more singles players who join the game and all of that evens out the level, makes it harder”, Zeballos told LA NACION.

For the left-hander, these semifinals come after a European season of slow courts in which the results had not been ideal, after starting the year with semifinals at the Australian Open and the final at the ATP in Buenos Aires. “You try to get to these tournaments with high expectations and sometimes you put a little more pressure on yourself and that sometimes works against you; other times you are faced with a couple who do not have as many obligations, play loosely and at their best level, several things happen”, highlights the player who won the Olimpia de Plata in tennis at the end of last year.

“In our case, when the year begins, we set ourselves a goal, what is it to reach the Masters, and for that you have to get a certain amount of points; we have several tournaments to achieve it, and it helps that we don’t have so much pressure to look for those points in each tournament we go to. And there are many tournaments with many points at stake; So, it is not necessary to play well everywhere, if we do it in a few weeks we know that it is enough for us, and that also helps us to play more relaxed and not be so dependent on some result, ”he explained in this regard.

The good performance in Paris will allow Zeballos return to position among the best in the ranking, since advancing to the semi-finals will see him climb from the sixth to the fourth step. In the Race, the Race that began in January and ends with qualifying for the Masters, has Zeballos and Granollers currently in fourth place.

Finalists at Wimbledon last year and at the 2019 US Open, Zeballos and Granollers are very close to that first major title. The lefty, who He is already the Argentine with the most titles in doubles at the ATP level (18, in addition to having played in 15 other finals), commented: “We feel that we do not do anything different from when we play a final in another tournament. We prepare the same way, I feel that we enjoy them, in my case I think I played them well, and out there you are playing your best tennis, but the rival too, and perhaps they handle themselves better at some decisive moment. But our objective is that, to reach the Masters. And if we can, be in a semifinal or final, and enjoy it, and not stray from the path that led us there.

If he progresses in Paris, Zeballos could go in search of the first Argentine title in men’s doubles. Two compatriots previously reached the final: Eduardo Schwank, in 2011, together with the Colombian Juan Sebastián Cabal, who lost to Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 7-5 and 6-2, and during the amateur era, Enrique Morea and the American Pancho Segura Cano, who in the decisive duel fell to the French Marcel Bernard and Yvon Petra 7-5, 6-3, 0-6, 1-6 and 10-8.