Melzer-Petzschner Win Five-Set Thriller To Reach Final

© Getty ImagesTecau and Lindstedt are on a nine-match winning streak.

Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner reached their first Grand Slam final together on Thursday as they battled to a 7-6(3), 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3 victory over seventh seeds Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman at The Championships, Wimbledon.

The Austrian-German duo has reached one ATP World Tour final, winning the title at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors in Zagreb in February, and both players are through to their first major doubles final individually. They were made to work hard by their South African-Belgian opponents, though, who threatened to rob them of victory after fighting back from two sets and a break down.

After clinching the first set on a tie-break, Melzer and Petzschner broke Moodie’s serve to lead 2-0, courtesy of fine returning, and strong serving from Petzschner helped the duo establish a two-set lead. A straight-sets victory then looked to be approaching for the pair after they broke Moodie’s serve again in the first game of the third set.

However, Moodie and Norman came storming back. Melzer and Petzschner seemed to lose their way after a bad decision to leave a ball, which landed in, in the third point of the second game proved costly as their opponents broke straight back. They then went on to break serve themselves before closing out the third set to claw their way back into contention.

Melzer and Petzschner were denied on a match point by a Moodie ace in the 10th game of the fourth set, and then found themselves facing a deciding fifth set as Moodie and Norman broke serve to love in the following game before levelling the match. The Austrian-German duo quickly put the disappointment behind them, though, breaking serve to lead 2-0 in the final set, and it was a lead they would not relinquish as Petzschner later served out victory.

Moodie and Norman also lost in the Wimbledon semi-finals last year, falling to the team they beat in Wednesday’s quarter-finals, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan. Four weeks ago they also suffered defeat in the Roland Garros semi-finals, losing out to Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic.

In the final, Melzer and Petzschner will face No. 16 seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau, who enjoyed a more straightforward 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 win over Argentine pairing Juan Ignacio Chela and Eduardo Schwank.

The Swedish-Romanian duo is on a nine-match winning streak after winning the grass-court ATP World Tour title in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (d. Dlouhy-Paes) in the week leading up to The Championships. They also teamed together to lift the Casablanca trophy (d. Bopanna-Qureshi) in April.

Both the 33-year-old Lindstedt and Tecau, 25, are through to their first Grand Slam final.