Benneteau-Tsonga Capture First Team Title

© Ron C. AngleJulien Benneteau and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were playing together for just the third time this week.

French duo Julien Benneteau and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga captured their first ATP World Tour title together with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski Sunday in the final of the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 Presented by Rolex.

With victory at the penultimate ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the season, Benneteau and Tsonga were awarded 1000 ATP World Tour Ranking points and $252,250 in prize money.

In just their third outing together, Benneteau and Tsonga have gone on a giant-killing run through to the title in Shanghai, accounting for top seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in the second round before later ousting third seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles in the semi-finals.

The duo, which has dropped only one set all week, produced another polished display in the final to defeat its sixth-seeded opponents. The Frenchmen lost only 10 points on serve throughout, while also saving the one break point they faced. They created a plentiful seven opportunities to break their opponents’ serves and were able to capitalise on three of their break point chances in the 63-minute match.

"[It’s] a good feeling to win a tournament so big like this," said Benneteau. "It’s my first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 [title]. It's [a] very good feeling. We played very good today. It was very, very good fun and [a] happy ending on this beautiful week."

The 27-year-old Benneteau won his fourth ATP World Tour doubles title and his first since triumphing in Las Vegas (w/Llodra) in March 2008. Tsonga, 24, maintained his perfect record in ATP World Tour doubles finals as he won his fourth title. The Le Mans native also clinched the Brisbane International title (w/ Gicquel) at the start of the season. It was the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy for both Benneteau and Tsonga; Benneteau had finished runner-up at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (w/ Gasquet) in 2007.

Considering his perfect record in doubles finals, Tsonga said: "I don't know what it is, but it's the same in singles; I lost only one. I like to play the final match of a tournament because this is the end of the tournament and if you win, you leave the tournament with a big smile and you are really happy, and I do everything in the final to win."

Fyrstenberg and Matkowski were bidding for their third ATP World Tour title of the season as they look to clinch one of the four remaining doubles berths at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The Poles, ninth in the 2009 ATP Doubles Team Rankings at the start of the week, received 600 ATP World Tour Ranking points.

The 29-year-old Fyrstenberg and Matkowski, 28, who won their second title of the season two weeks ago at the Proton Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2009, slipped to a 10-14 lifetime record together in ATP World Tour finals. They were chasing their second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title to join the trophy they won at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open last season.