Koolhof/Mektic Earn Opening Win In London
Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic opened their Nitto ATP Finals campaign on Sunday with a 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 10-7 victory against Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies.
The fifth seeds won the final five points of the match to improve to 21-12 this year after two hours and three minutes. Koolhof and Mektic, who are making their team debut at the Nitto ATP Finals, move to 1-0 in Group Mike Bryan.
“In doubles, it always comes down to one or two points,” said Koolhof. “I think we actually played a pretty good match. We were up a break in both sets… The [Match Tie-break] was a rollercoaster. We were up and then we were 5/7 down. In the end, we managed to turn it around.”
The US Open finalists extended their ATP Head2Head series lead against Krawietz and Mies to 3-1. All four meetings between the pairs have taken place this season. Koolhof and Mektic also defeated their Germans at the Adelaide International in January and the Hamburg European Open in September.
Koolhof and Mektic put their opponents under regular pressure on serve and earned the first break of the match at 4-3, as Koolhof attacked well with his forehand. But Krawietz and Mies responded immediately. Koolhof committed double faults in crucial moments to drop serve in the next game and hand the Germans an early lead in the tie-break. Mies extended that advantage by attacking Koolhof’s second serve and struck an overhead winner to clinch the set.
After trading breaks early in the second set, Koolhof and Mektic ripped return winners in the second-set tie-break and converted their first set point with an ace to level the match. In the Match Tie-break, Koolhof returned with aggression to recover from a mini-break down. The fifth seeds clinched victory when Mies failed to control a backhand return.
”It was definitely a close one,” said Mektic. “I think through the entire match we felt like we were a little bit the better team. We were a little bit unfortunate in the first set… We kept saying to ourselves that we were good, we played good and [to] just keep digging. In the end, it paid off.”
Did You Know?
All eight teams competing at this year’s Nitto ATP Finals are in contention to finish as the year-end No. 1 team in the FedEx ATP Doubles Team Rankings.