Croatia’s Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic have won their first title of the season and successfuly defended their Rome title from 2021 after beating John Isner and Diego Schwartzman in the Rome Masters final.
Mektic and Pavic, seeded at No. 3, saved a match point to beat Isner and Schwartzman 6-2 6-7 (8) 12-10 in the Rome final.
Mektic and Pavic claimed back-to-back breaks in the third and fifth games to open an early 4-1 lead.
Isner and Schwartzman had a chance to get one break back in the sixth game but Mektic and Pavic saved two break points to take a 5-1 lead.
Isner and Schwartzman served out the seventh game to reduce the deficit to 2-5 but it didn’t change much as Mektic and Pavic routinely served out for the first set in the following game.
The first break point of the second set was seen in the 11th game, when Isner and Schwartzman saved a break point to open a 6-5 lead.
Mektic and Pavic failed to convert a break point in the 11th game but also saved a set point on their serve in the 12th game to force a tie-break.
In the tie-break, Mektic and Pavic had a match point at 6-5 but Isner and Schwartzman responded by winning three consecutive points to save a set point and win the second set.
Mektic and Pavic save a match point in the match tie-break
Mektic and Pavic had their second match point in the match tie-break at 9-8 but failed to convert as Isner and Schwartzman won two points in a row to save the match point and also clinch their first match point.
However, blowing two match points didn’t affect Mektic and Pavic, who won three consecutive points from 9-10 down to win Rome.
Mektic and Pavic won nine titles last year but struggled with their form and results at the beginning of this season.
Mektic and Pavic will now be hoping to continue their good form next week in Geneva.
Mektic and Pavic were drawn to meet Sander Arends and Szymon Walkow in their Geneva opener.
Winning Rome will certainly boost the confidence of Mektic and Pavic as they were desperate for a strong result ahead of the French Open.
Mektic and Pavic lost just one set en route to winning Rome.