Bracciali-Cermak Capture First Team Title In 's-Hertogenbosch

© Edwin Verhoef/UNICEF OpenBracciali and Cermak won their first ATP World Tour team title Saturday at the UNICEF Open.

Daniele Bracciali and Frantisek Cermak captured their first ATP World Tour doubles title in just their second tournament together as they triumphed at the UNICEF Open on Saturday.

The unseeded Italian-Czech duo came through a rain-delayed encounter to defeat defending champions Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau 6-3, 2-6, 10-8 in the final of the ATP World Tour 250 grass-court tennis tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

"This is only the second tournament that we've played together," said Bracciali. "We played a very good week and beat tough opponents today in the final."

Bracciali and Cermak had only dropped one set en route to the final, including a straight-sets quarter-final win over third seeds Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Rojer. The final was split at one-set-all when a lengthy rain shower interrupted proceedings, but they held their nerve at the resumption to claim victory in the deciding Match Tie-break after 69 minutes of play.

"Every match on grass is close. So I'm very happy that we managed to win this one today," reflected Cermak.

The 34-year-old Cermak, who went into the clash with more ATP World Tour doubles titles and finals than the other three players combined, clinched his 24th trophy (24-16 record). It was his second title of the season after victory in Belgrade with Filip Polasek. The 33-year-old Bracciali was contesting his fifth ATP World Tour doubles title and improved to a 3-2 record.

Second seeds Lindstedt and Tecau won the ‘s-Hertogenbosch title last year with victory over Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes, and two weeks later they finished runners-up at Wimbledon (l. to Melzer-Petzschner). They dropped to a 5-3 record in tour-level finals together.

The doubles final at the AEGON International in Eastbourne between Jonathan Erlich/Andy Ram and Grigor Dimitrov/Andreas Seppi was abandoned due to rain.