PARIS (Reuters) -El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo and Croatian Mate Pavic beat Italian pair Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-5 6-3 on Saturday to win the French Open men’s doubles title.
It was the ninth seeds’ first Grand Slam crown as a pair. Arevalo, 33, won the French Open men’s doubles in 2022 with Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer and the 30-year-old Pavic has now won the men’s doubles titles at all four Grand Slams.
“It feels special,” said Pavic, who has won seven Grand Slams, including three mixed doubles titles. “I want to thank Marcelo for bringing me to the top. He knows how it is to be done.”
“Two crazy weeks, a lot of tough matches… we did it together. I am really happy,” Arevalo said.
The first set was poised at 5-5 when Arevalo and Pavic saved four break points to win the game and broke their opponents to clinch the set.
“Of course, I had it in the back of my mind, (that) I lost here twice (in) the finals,” Pavic, who lost the men’s doubles finals in 2018 and 2020, told reporters. “I was pretty close even before… you have it there in your mind, you want to win.”
Bolelli and Vavassori, who reached this year’s Australian Open final, broke to go 2-1 up in the second set, but Arevalo and Pavic broke back immediately and did so again to take a decisive 5-3 lead.
“You played an unbelievable match,” Vavassori told the winners.
“I hope maybe one day we can beat you,” Bolelli said. “Good luck for the rest of the season.”
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon and Ed Osmond)
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