New Team Mektic/Pavic Close In On Antalya Crown
New team Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic continued their strong start to the season by blasting their way into the Antalya Open doubles final on Monday. The top seeds beat Italians Salvatore Caruso and Andrea Vavassori 6-1, 6-1 to set up a championship match against second seeds Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek, who overcame third-seeded Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin 6-3, 6-1.
Mektic and Pavic both competed in the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals, but with different partners. Mektic won the season finale alongside Wesley Koolhof, and Pavic and Bruno Soares finished as the year-end No. 1 doubles team. The 32-year-old Mektic has an 8-8 record in tour-level finals, while Pavic is 17-22 overall.
Dodig and Polasek have a 2-2 record in ATP Tour finals, having captured two crowns in 2019 at the Western & Southern Open and the China Open. Dodig and Pavic finished runner-up in September last year at the Hamburg European Open (l. to Peers/Venus).