London: India’s Rohan Bopanna and Romania’s Florin Mergea eased into the doubles final with an emphatic 6-4, 6-2 win over third-seeded Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo at the O2 Arena here on Saturday.
Bopanna and Mergea were in control throughout the one hour they spent on court and it took them a break on Dodig’s serve in the fifth game to win the first set 6-4 in 29 minutes.
In the second set, the Indo-Romanian pair started off with an early break — once again on the Croatian’s serve to lead 2-1. Mergea then failed to hold his serve and things were even at 2-2, but the eighth-ranked pair once again nudged clear as this time Melo failed to hold, and then Bopanna held for 4-2.
Dodig was broken a second time in the set — and third time on the afternoon — and Mergea then served out for set and match to hand himself a memorable debut at this season-ending competition. Bopanna and Mergea was the eighth and final pair qualifying for the doubles competition on the final day of the regular season following Dodig and Melo’s win against Pospisil and Sock on November 8.
“The key was to stay consistent on our game. We speculated well that they could have an off day and that happened. But we always knew it would be a close one, as it has always been close between us in the past as well,” Mergea told Gulf News.
Saturday’s win puts the win-loss record between the two pairs at 2-2. The Croat and Brazilian had won on the two occasions they had played this season — quarter-finals at the Cincinnati Masters and the Paris Masters last week, while Bopanna and Mergea had beaten the duo at the Shanghai Masters last year.
“Right now we are very happy to be in the final. We are up against two of the best pairs [Bryan brothers or Jean-Julien Rojer-Horia Tecau] in the final. We just need to focus on our game and go for the win,” Bopanna said.
