Sabanov Brothers Reach Second ATP Tour Final In Houston

Serbian twin brothers Ivan Sabanov and Matej Sabanov continued their Houston hot streak to reach their second ATP Tour final with a battling victory Friday at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Clay Court Championship.

The 29-year-olds defeated the all-American pairing of William Blumberg and Max Schnur, 6-3, 7-5, to make it five sets in a row on the red clay of Texas. After surviving a Match Tie-break in their opening match, the Serbian duo upset third seeds Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock in Thursday’s quarter-finals.

Strong on serve behind an 83 per cent (33/40) first-serve win rate, the Sabanov brothers were three of four on break chances Friday, including two crucial breaks late in the second set as they stormed back 1-4 down.

In Saturday’s final, the duo will seek to extend its record in tour-level finals to 2-0 following an 2021 triumph in Belgrade last April. The pair await the winner of the second semi-final between top seeds Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell and the Uruguayan/American duo of Pablo Cuevas and Hunter Reese.

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The Grand Prix Hassan II final in Marrakech will feature two unseeded pairings as Andrea Vavassori and Jan Zielinski take on Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez.

Vavassori and Zielinski took out top seeds Andrey Golubev and Fabrice Martin, 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 11-9, with the Italian/Polish duo saving a pair of match points as they served to send the second set to a tie-break on Friday. 

Matos and Vega Hernandez saved all three break points rthey faced in a 7-5, 7-6(6) win over Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Aisam Qureshi.