Horacio Zeballos
could not give himself the pleasure of shouting champion for the fifth time in
2023
.
The Mar del Plata and the Spanish
Marcel Granollers
, top favorites, lost the doubles final 6-2 and 7-6 (8-6) against the Italians
Simone Bolelli
and
Andrea Vavassori
, third seeds, at the start of the day on a Sunday cloudy but hot at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club.
In the run-up to the definition of the singles between
Facundo Díaz Acosta
and
Nicolás Jarry
there was a lot of expectation for a possible new consecration of the man from Mar del Plata.
But his rivals, finalists in January at the
Australian Open
, were superior.
"Thanks to Marcel for coming, it is never easy and having him here is a source of pride. And to my family, some of those who came from Mar del Plata. The years go by and I continue to get excited," said Zeballos, after receiving the trophy. runner-up
And he made a promise that generated a shower of applause: "It was nice to play here again. I thank the organizers. And I'm not going to retire until this is an ATP 500. So we'll see you next year."
In the first set, the Italian couple converted the three break chances they had, to take the set without many problems.
Onion
and his partner were not fine and, after being 1-3 down on the scoreboard, they could not recover.
BOLELLI AND VAVASSORI, DOUBLES CHAMPIONS AT THE IEB+ ARGENTINA OPEN!
🎾🏆
The Italians beat Zeballos and Granollers 6-2 and 7-6 to win the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires.
pic.twitter.com/HyvX8UfVkn
— TyC Sports (@TyCSports) February 18, 2024
The story became very even in the second chapter.
The Argentinian and the Spaniard began to score many more first serves and win more points that way.
And they made fewer mistakes, both when they went out to press the net and from the baseline.
But their rivals remained solid, especially in their service games, and winning many points through the parallels.
Thus, until 6-6 there were no breaks (not even a
break point
) in the set.
A mini-break on Zeballos' serve at the start of the
tie break
, followed by two good service points from Bolelli, allowed the Italians to go ahead 3-0 and shortly after be up 6-3, with three match points in their favor.
The Argentine and the Spaniard saved all three (two with Bolelli on serve and another with Granollers' serve) and tied 6-6.
But they couldn't in the fourth and Vavassori was in charge of sealing the Italian consecration.
Granollers and Zeballos raised three match points in the tie break but gave up in the second.
Photo EFE/ Luciano González
Bolelli lifted the doubles trophy of the Buenos Aires competition for the third time.
He had already won in 2013 and in 2023 with
Fabio Fognini
as a partner.
"It is always a pleasure to come here. It is like playing at home. Every time I come people always show us a lot of affection. So I will return next year," said the native of Bologna, currently 38 years old.
Vavassori won his first title on the clay of the BALTC and closed a huge week, as he was also one of the surprises in the singles draw.
In the individual competition, the one born in Pinerolo 28 years ago, 152nd in the ranking, started in qualifying
and
reached the quarterfinals with victories against the Brazilian
Thiago Seyboth Wild
and the Serbian
Laslo Djere
, seventh seeded.
And he said goodbye to
Carlos Alcaraz
, number two in the world, whom he managed to take to a tie break in the first set of the duel that the Spaniard won 7-6 (7-1) and 6-1.
Vavassori and Bolelli added their first title together in Buenos Aires.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández-CLARIN
"It was an incredible week. We did a great job. I hope to come back next year," Vavassori said.
The Buenos Aires tournament was left with the desire to see an Argentine lift the doubles trophy for the 13th time since it regained its ATP status in 2001. The last to achieve it was
Andrés Molteni
, who was crowned champion in 2022 along with the Mexican Santiago González.
Zeballos won in 2010 together with
Sebastián Prieto
, in 2018 together with Molteni, in 2019 together with
Máximo González
and in 2019, already in pairs with Granollers.