Melzer-Petzschner Win Third Team Title In Rotterdam

© Henk KosterJurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner have a perfect 3-0 finals record.

Austria’s Jurgen Melzer and Germany’s Philipp Petzschner won their third ATP World Tour team title on Sunday as they defeated Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 in the final of the ABN AMRO World Tour Tennis Tournament.

Melzer and Petzschner, currently eighth in the 2011 ATP Doubles Team Rankings after reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals (l. to Bryans), received 500 ranking points and €82,500 in prize money as winners of the first ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament of the year.

“It’s been a great week in Rotterdam,” said Melzer, who won his 10th tour-level doubles title. “It’s a very strong tournament and to end up winning it is always nice. I think we played great matches. We were struggling a little bit in the first round, and then obviously in the final a Match Tie-break is never easy, but I’m really happy with the way we performed and am looking forward to the next weeks.”

Petzschner added, “We had a great week. We played four great matches in a row. We beat tough teams as well so I’m really happy about the win. [Next week] in Marseille we are the top seeds, so of course we’ll go there and try to get the title.”

It marked their first title since triumphing at Wimbledon (d. Lindstedt-Tecau) last July and took them to a 3-0 record in tour-level finals; they won their maiden crown in Zagreb (d. Clement-O. Rochus) just over a year ago.

The top eight teams in the 2011 ATP Doubles Team Rankings at the end of the regular season will qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and Melzer and Petzschner will be hoping to make a second visit to The O2 in London after going 1-2 in round robin play on their debut last year.

The second seeds made a strong start to Sunday’s final, breaking Llodra’s serve in the first game of the match as they clinched the first set in 30 minutes. Fourth seeds Llodra and Zimonjic struck back in the second set, though, breaking Petzschner’s serve in the fourth game to level the match. In the deciding Match Tie-break, Melzer and Petzschner won six of the last seven points from being tied at 4-4, including benefitting from two double faults from Zimonjic on the last two points, to claim victory in 72 minutes.

Llodra and Zimonjic, who joined forces full time at the beginning of the season, were contesting their first ATP World Tour doubles final together. Like Melzer and Petzschner, they also began their 2011 campaign with a quarter-final showing in Melbourne (l. to Bhupathi-Paes).

“Jurgen and Philipp played a great match today,” commented Zimonjic. “I want to thank my partner. This is only our second tournament together and we’re already in the finals. We were unfortunate today, but it was a good match.”

The 30-year-old Llodra dropped to an 18-17 mark in tour-level doubles finals, while the 34-year-old Zimonjic was denied his 40th tour-level title (39-26 finals record).