Tecau/Mergea Clinch Bucharest Crown; Tecau's 300th Win

Horia Tecau and Florin Mergea delighted Romanian supporters on Monday morning when they were victors in a rain-interrupted BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy final.

Tecau claimed the 300th match win of his career with his fourth title at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament by partnering fellow 31-year-old Mergea to a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Chris Guccione and Andre Sa in 76 minutes.

Tecau has now won four titles on home soil with as many partners, prevailing with Robert Lindstedt in 2012, Max Mirnyi in 2013 and Jean-Julien Rojer in 2014.

“All these days we’ve done everything to be prepared to play when the weather allowed it,” said Tecau. “We waited on Sunday, we played a set, and today we woke up very early, like 6:00 a.m. to be here and see what happens. This title, for us, is a dream come true. Something we thought of since we were children. We are happy and we thank our team and the people who came to support us all week, despite the rain.”

Mergea added, “It wasn’t an easy week for us, but we wanted to play together here. We are happy with the title. Now we have more confidence in ourselves, in our game. It’s a first step towards our goal, which is a medal at the Olympics in Rio.”

This week, Tecau and Mergea played together at an ATP World Tour event for the first time since the same tournament in 2008. They shared €25,070 in prize money and earned 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points.

The start of the doubles final on Sunday was initially pushed back two hours. Mergea and Tecau eventually sealed the first set 7-5 in 41 minutes, but no further play was possible as ATP supervisor Gerry Armstrong called off play at 5:50 p.m. local time.

Scheduled for an 9:30 a.m. resumption on Monday, the final did not begin due to light rain until 10:25 a.m. Both teams exchanged early serve breaks, but Mergea and Tecau broke for a fourth time in the match for a 4-3 lead en route to the title.

Mergea is now 6-6 lifetime in ATP World Tour finals, while Tecau – in his first title match of 2016 – improves to 28-16 overall. Tecau has won 16 straight matches in Bucharest since his last loss in the 2011 quarter-finals with Robert Lindstedt.

Guccione and Sa were contesting their third ATP World Tour team final, having won in Nottingham and reaching the final in Shenzhen last year. Guccione is 4-6 in finals, while Sa dropped to 10-17. They moved onto their next tournament with €13,170 and 150 points.