Melzer-Petzschner Notch First Group A Win Over Lindstedt-Tecau

© AFP/Getty ImagesPhilipp Petzschner and Jurgen Melzer also went 1-2 in group play last year.

Seventh seeds Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner ended Group A play with a 1-2 record after they beat sixth seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau 6-3, 6-4 in 68 minutes on Friday at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

As a result of fourth seeds and three-time finalists Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes beating top seeds and three-time former titlist Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 6-4, 6-2, during the evening session, Melzer and Petzschner's chances of semi-final qualification ended.

Melzer admitted after their day session win, "It was nice to lose two matches, but come into the last match knowing that if we won we might qualify for the semi-finals," Melzer told ATPWorldTour.com. "We took that as a positive sign and went out there to win the match."

Petzschner added, "I spoke to Bob Bryan yesterday and said if you scratch our backs, we'll scratch your backs."

"I won't follow tonight's match at all," said Melzer. "I will turn on live scores at eight o'clock and see if I need to book a flight tomorrow or play tomorrow."

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The first set went with serve until the eighth game, when Tecau was broken on a sudden death deuce point. Melzer was then forced to close out the 33-minute opener on a deciding point, having saved two break points from 30/40.

Tecau was broken again, to 30, in the third game of the second set. During the match, Melzer dropped 10 points on serve in six service games. He closed out to 15, when Tecau hit a backhand volley into the net, for their 27th win of the season and first win since September, when they lifted their second Grand Slam championship title at the US Open (d. Fyrstenberg-Matkowski).

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"I think we played well," said Melzer. "I played a solid match and Philipp was flashy. That's what makes us dangerous. They serve so well, so we needed to put a lot of returns into court, which Philipp did today. We won all of the deciding points today, so it felt great."

Melzer and Petzschner have a 27-13 match record on the season, including titles at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament (d. Llodra-Zimonjic), the MercedesCup in Stuttgart (d. Granollers-M. Lopez) and the US Open.

Lindstedt and Tecau, finalists at Wimbledon for a second straight year, end their season with a 39-23 match record. They went 1-2 in round-robin play this week.