Cuevas-Dabul Capture Vina del Mar Title

Jim RydellBeaten Finalists Frantisek Cermak And Michal Mertinak

No. 3 seeds Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Brian Dabul of Argentina defeated top seeds Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic and Michal Mertinak (pictured) of the Slovak Republic 6-3, 6-3 to capture the Movistar Open doubles title on Saturday night.

Cuevas and Dabul were teaming up for only the second time in an ATP World Tour tournament ('08 Buenos Aires). Cuevas won his previous doubles title at Roland Garros (w/Horna) last year and Dabul was appearing in his first ATP World Tour doubles final.

Cermak and Mertinak broke for a 2-1 lead in the first set but the South Americans reeled off five of the last six games to win the opener. They won three decisive game points. In the second set, Cuevas and Dabul broke for a 3-2 lead and secured the victory with another break in the ninth game.

Cuevas and Dabul converted four of seven break points and saved two of three on their serve. They also won 50 per cent of second serve points compared to Cermak and Mertinak's 35 per cent.

"It's great to win my first title in the season," said Cuevas, who lost in the singles semi-finals earlier. "Brian and I played well during the weekend and we are happy to win our first doubles title together."

Dabul added, "I'm very happy to win my first ATP (World Tour) title. We played four good matches here in Vina de Mar. I hope we can win more titles together in the future."

Cermak and Mertinak were playing together for only the third time, all this season, and this was their first final as a squad. They opened the campaign with a semi-final showing in Auckland and then lost in the second round at the Australian Open.

Cermak fell to 16-13 lifetime in ATP World Tour finals and he's won at least one title the past seven years (2002-08). This was Cermak's third runner-up showing in Vina del Mar (2003, '06, '08) and Mertinak slipped to 6-2 in his career in ATP World Tour finals.

Top seeds Martin Damm and Robert Lindstedt reached their second ATP World Tour final after defeating German-Austrian pairing Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday in the semi-finals of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament. In the final they will face fourth seeds Christopher Kas and Rogier Wassen.

The Czech-Swedish team lost its serve once but converted on three of five break point opportunities to secure victory in 76 minutes. Currently seventh in the 2009 ATP Doubles Team Rankings, Damm-Lindstedt joined forces at the beginning of the season with a quarter-final showing at Brisbane before winning their first ATP World Tour title at Auckland (d. Lipsky-Paes) the following week. At the Australian Open they fell victim to Mardy Fish and John Isner in the second round.

Individually, the 36-year-old Damm is bidding for his 39th ATP World Tour title from 59 finals. Lindstedt, 31, is chasing his fifth ATP World Tour title from eight final appearances.

At the SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg, fourth seeds Rik de Voest and Ashley Fisher booked their place in the final of the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament by defeating top-seeded South Africans Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday. De Voest and Fisher saved all three break points they faced while converting two of nine opportunities on their opponents’ serve to secure the victory in 80 minutes. In the final they will face unseeded duo James Cerretani and Dick Norman.

The South African-Australian pairing is through to its second ATP World Tour final together and is bidding for its second title after triumphing at Beijing (d. Haggard-Lu) in September 2007. Pretoria resident de Voest is chasing his second ATP World Tour title, while the 33-year-old Fisher will appear in his eighth final and is hoping to win his fifth title.