Parrott-Polasek Win St. Petersburg Title

© spbopen.comTravis Parrott, Filip Polasek

American Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek of the Slovak Republic earned a hard-fought 3-6, 7-6(4) 10-8 (Match TB) win over first-time pairing Indian Rohan Bopanna and Max Mirnyi of Belarus at the St. Petersburg Open on Sunday. The final lasted one hour and 37 minutes. Parrott and Polasek reached the Valencia final (l. to M. Gonzalez/Monaco) in April.

The 28-year-old Parrott has a 17-12 season record, which also includes a runner-up finish with Dusan Vemic in Los Angeles (l. to Bopanna-Butorac). The Portland, Oregon native improved to 3-4 in ATP finals. The World No. 71 had previously captured titles at 2003 Los Angeles (w/Gambill) and 2007 Indianapolis (w/del Potro).

“For the first set and a half we were completely outplayed,” said Parrott. “At 4-3 down in the second set Bopanna double faulted at 40-40 and after that the momentum shifted our way.

“We are really happy to have won our first ATP title as a team. We started playing together in February. It is fun to have worked our way up from the Challenger circuit and get the chance to win an ATP title.”

The 23-year-old Polasek captured his maiden ATP trophy at Gstaad with Jaroslav Levinsky in July (d. Bohli-Wawrinka) and improved to 23-16 on the season. Polasek started the week at No. 49 in the Stanford ATP Doubles Rankings.

“It was my first time in Russia,” said Polasek. “It feels great to win an ATP title with Travis in the last tournament of the year. We will keep playing together next year starting in Australia.”

World No. 32 Mirnyi, aged 31, dropped to 23-19 on the season, highlighted by two ATP titles at Delray Beach (w/J. Murray) and Vienna (w/A. Ram). He is 35-26 in career ATP finals.

Bopanna, who won his first ATP title with Eric Butorac in Los Angeles in August this year, also finished runner-up in Newport (w/Qureshi). The 28-year-old Bangalore native dropped to 16-17 on the season and 1-5 in ATP finals.