French Duo Takes Metz Doubles Crown

Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin delighted the home fans on Sunday at the Moselle Open, capturing the doubles title 7-5, 6-3 over Wesley Koolhof and Artem Sitak.

It was the third tour-level triumph for the French tandem, with all victories coming on home soil. They previously lifted trophies in Marseille and Roland Garros in 2014.

The third seeds dropped just one set all week, capping the strong run in Metz with the 74-minute win over Koolhof and Sitak. They fired five aces and saved eight of nine break points.

“We stayed solid in the big moments today, especially at 30/40 on my serve in the second set,” said Benneteau. “We forced them to make some mistakes and that was the key in the end.”

Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin claim 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and split €26,110 in prize money. For Benneteau, the victory in Metz comes 14 years after capturing the title in the inaugural edition of the ATP World Tour 250 event (w/Mahut). It is title No. 12 for the 35 year old.

Roger-Vasselin, meanwhile, notched his first crown of the year and 14th in his career. He has now claimed the Metz title with three different partners, also prevailing with Nicolas Mahut in 2012 and Lukasz Kubot in 2015.

“Every match was difficult,” added Roger-Vasselin. “The first against Bolelli and Seppi was a tough one. We played well all week and we’re very happy to have the trophy at the end. Today it was a good match again and we played very well. Almost a perfect week.”

Koolhof and Sitak were appearing in their second ATP World Tour final together, having finished runners-up to Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in Atlanta earlier this year. They were coming off a title run at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Szczecin, Poland, last week.