Mergea/Tecau Will Go For Home Title in Bucharest

The home-country favorites will have a chance to become the home-country champions on Sunday at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest. Romanians Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau beat Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 on Saturday to advance to the final in Bucharest. The No. 1 seeds won nearly 70 per cent of their first-serve points and broke their opponents three times in the win.

“It was tough,” Mergea said. “We lost the first set after having seven or eight break points. Our opponents became more confident.”

Tecau, though, said a close semi-finals match should help them on Sunday. “It’s good for us to face such tough situations. After a 6-3, 6-3 victory, you don’t think too much,” he said. “It benefits the team to have close matches, that’s helping us to see what we have to improve.”

Mergea and Tecau will go for their first ATP World Tour title together against Chris Guccione of Australia and Andre Sa of Brazil. Mergea has won five tour-level doubles titles and Tecau has 27 doubles titles. Guccione/Sa will be playing in their third ATP World Tour final together. Last year, the duo won the Aegon Open Nottingham and reached the final of the Shenzhen Open.