Gonzalez-Lipsky End Bryans’ Winning Run, Clinch Maiden Crown

First-time pairing Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky ended Bob Bryan and Mike Bryans’ 10-match winning streak on Sunday as they captured the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell title with a 5-7, 6-2, 12-10 victory over the Americans.

The Mexican-American duo embarked on a giant-killing run in their first tournament together, having beaten No. 3 seeds Jurgen Melzer and Nenad Zimonjic and No. 2 seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor earlier in the week, and saved four match points to beat the top-seeded Bryans in the final.

The unseeded duo hit back from the loss of the first set to break the Bryans’ serve twice in the second set and force a Match Tie-break. They then held their nerve against the Americans, winners of 70 tour-level doubles titles, to prevail in 85 minutes, having trailed 6-9 and 9-10.

"In order to beat Bob and Mike you have to play extremely well," said Lipsky. "We kept our composure the whole match and played some big points at big times. We’re both very excited about how this week went. We served well all week. That puts pressure on our opponents and we put a lot of returns in. Hopefully at some point we can play again!"

Gonzalez added, "It was a great week for us, we beat a lot of good teams this week. And in the final we beat the best team in the world. We’re very excited about it. For now we can just enjoy the week, everything was perfect."

The 28-year-old Gonzalez, Mexico’s No. 1 player in both singles and doubles, captured his second ATP World Tour doubles title. The 29-year-old Lipsky was contesting his 12th ATP World tour doubles final and improved to a 6-6 record.

The Bryans, who won the Barcelona trophy in 2003 and 2008, were chasing their third ATP World Tour title in as many weeks, having triumphed at Houston (d. Isner-Querrey) and Monte-Carlo (d. Chela-Soares). The Americans, who also clinched the Australian Open crown in January, dropped to a 70-40 record in tour-level doubles finals.

“It’s a tough loss. We had a few match points and we needed just one more point," said Mike Bryan. "They came up with some solid volleys when they needed to at the end.”

Bob Bryan added, “We put ourselves in a strong position and we couldn’t get ourselves over the line. Sometimes that’s the way it goes, that’s tennis.”