Carreno Busta And Duran Earn Maiden Title

Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Duran’s new partnership paid immediate dividends as the pair saved all eight break points faced to down Thomaz Bellucci and Marcelo Demoliner 7-5, 6-4 in the doubles final of the Ecuador Open Quito on Saturday.

Carreno Busta and Duran were playing together for the first time on the ATP World Tour and will split 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and $25,070. The unseeded Spanish-Argentinian team upended No. 2 seeds Purav Raja and Rajeev Ram in the opening round and No. 3 seeds Austin Krajicek and Nicholas Monroe in the semi-finals.

“We were having dinner together at the Australian Open, and I asked Pablo if he wanted to play in Quito together,” Duran said. “Perhaps it was a lucky break.”

“[Guillermo] is a good player with solid returns, serves and volleys, and with him we were a very complete team,” Carreno Busta noted. “It’s easy for me when my partner is playing well.

“We were a bit nervous at the start, since it was our first final. But we were able to take advantage of our opportunities.”

Bellucci and Demoliner had worked hard to get to the final, as all three of the Brazilians’ victories this week had come in Match Tie-breaks, including a quarter-final win over defending champions Gero Kretschmer and Alexander Satschko. Bellucci’s busy week in Quito continues, as he will be playing for the singles title on Sunday against Victor Estrella Burgos. The Brazilians will share 150 rankings points and $13,170.