De Voest & Tursunov Clinch Dubai Title; Cermak & Mertinak Win Acapulco

Barclays Dubai T.C.Dmitry Tursunov, Rik de Voest

First-time pairing Dmitry Tursunov and Rik de Voest (pictured) captured the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships title with a 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 victory over Martin Damm and Robert Lindstedt in the final of the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament on Saturday.

De Voest and Tursunov now scoop 500 ATP World Tour Ranking points and share $94,000 in prize money. Damm and Lindstedt receive 300 ATP World Tour Ranking points and split $48,500.

A sand storm throughout Saturday ensured tricky conditions for the players as the court had a light covering of sand and dust. Damm and Lindstedt enjoyed the better start to the match, breaking in the third and fifth games. De Voest and Tursunov rallied to earn a break of serve to love in the sixth game but could not prevent their opponents from taking the opening set as Lindstedt served out the 6-4 lead as Tursunov netted a backhand return.

After saving a break point in their opening service game of the second set, Tursunov and de Voest won three straight points on Damm’s serve for a 0-40 advantage – which Tursunov converted into a break of serve with a lob winner. The duo later went on to level the score-line at one-set apiece with a service hold to love at 5-3.

In the Match Tie-Break, de Voest and Tursunov combined excellent service placement with sharp returns to open up a 4-1 lead. An unreturned de Voest serve gave the rookie duo four match points at 9-5 and they clinched victory on first opportunity as Lindstedt’s forehand return found the net after one hour and 28 minutes of play.

"We had a lot of chances in the first set and they played one good game to break us. We eventually broke back and knew that we could break them so it was just a case of making a lot of shots," said de Voest. "Dmitry hits the ball pretty hard and anything’s possible off his racquet, so you’re never out of it when he’s playing.”

The 28-year-old de Voest claimed his second ATP World Tour doubles title, to join the trophy he won with Ashley Fisher at 2007 Beijing. De Voest was contesting his second ATP World Tour final of the season after finishing runner-up with Fisher at Johannesburg (l. to Cerretani-Norman).

Tursunov, 26, won his first ATP World Tour doubles title since triumphing with Tomas Berdych in Rotterdam last year. He improved to a 3-3 career mark in finals; his first title came at 2006 Moscow with Marat Safin (d. Cibulec-Zovko).

"You just have to go with the flow and hope that he's (Lindstedt) going to stop making good shots and start making some errors, which is what happened I think," said Tursunov.

"I think it he got a little bit tighter towards the end of the second, and then in the tiebreak, and it worked for us."

Damm and Lindstedt, currently sixth in the 2009 ATP Doubles Team Rankings, were bidding for their third ATP World Tour doubles title of the season after triumphing at Auckland (d. Lipsky-Paes) and Zagreb (d. Kas-Wassen). The 36-year-old Damm was looking for his second title in Dubai and his 40th ATP World Tour doubles title from 60 finals, while the 31-year-old Lindstedt was bidding for his sixth ATP World Tour doubles title and slipped to a 5-4 mark in finals.

In the Abierto Mexicano Telcel doubles final in Acapulco, top seeds Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic and Michal Mertinak of the Slovak Republic rallied to defeat No. 2 seeds Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Oliver Marach of Austria 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 on Saturday night.

Cermak and Mertinak captured their first ATP World Tour title together. Mertinak won the Acapulco title for the second straight year after winning with Marach last season. Cermak, who won the Acapulco title in 2006, captured an ATP World Tour crown for the eighth straight year and the 17th time in his career (17-13). Mertinak captured his seventh ATP World Tour crown in nine finals.
     
There were only two breaks in the one hour and 41-minute match. Kubot and Marach broke in the 10th game of the opening set and Cermak and Mertinak broke the only time in the first game of the second set. In the Match Tie-Break, Kubot and Marach held a 7-6 lead but Cermak and Mertinak rallied to win the last four points to secure the title.

Kubot was looking to capture his first ATP World Tour doubles title (0-3) and Marach fell to 2-5 in finals.

In the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, top seeded Bob and Mike Bryan advanced to their third final of the season with a 1-6, 6-2, 12-10 victory over No. 4 seeds Eric Butorac and Bruno Soares on Saturday.
 
After dropping the first set, the Bryans broke in the second and eighth games to level the match. In a back-and-forth Match Tie-Break, where neither team held a two point lead after 3-3, the Bryans finally wrapped up the 63-minute match on their fourth match point.
 
The Bryans, who were finalists in Delray Beach last year, improved to 14-1 on the season. They will try to win their first tournament title to go along with Sydney and the Australian Open this season.
 
They will face No. 2 seeds Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa of Brazil. They defeated Americans Rajeev Ram and Bobby Reynolds 7-6(10), 2-6, 10-5, to advance to their first ATP World Tour final of the season.

Last year Melo and Sa won three titles together in four finals and finished No. 9 in the ATP Team Rankings.