Cipolla/Sela Notch Istanbul Doubles Crown

Flavio Cipolla and Dudi Sela captured their first ATP World Tour doubles titles, edging Diego Schwartzman and Andres Molteni 6-3, 5-7, 10-7 at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open

“We’ve been having so much fun,” said Cipolla. “It’s been a wonderful week together. I want to congratulate Diego and Andres on a great week and thanks to the crowd. They’ve been great. It’s been a fantastic tournament.”

The Italian-Israeli duo emerged victorious at 10:40pm local time, converting on their fifth championship point. Schwartzman and Molteni turned aside four previous chances deep in the second set and reeled off four straight games from 3-5 down to force a Match Tie-break. But 32-year-old Cipolla and 31-year-old Sela held their nerve, prevailing after one hour and 28 minutes.

“I really love it here in Turkey,” added Sela. “It’s very close to home. Great food here and a great city. I think me, Flavio and Diego are the shortest players on the tour and we’re all on the court.”

Cipolla, a 23-time ATP Challenger Tour doubles champion, and Sela, a four-time Challenger winner, were contesting their first finals at the tour-level in their team debut. They split €23,050 in prize money and 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points.

Schwartzman, meanwhile, was bidding to lift his second trophy of the day after winning his maiden ATP World Tour singles title (d. Dimitrov). The last player to do so was Lleyton Hewitt in Newport 2014. Schwartzman fell to 0-2 in doubles finals, while Molteni was appearing in his first.