Bopanna-Mergea enter Stuttgart Open final

Indo-Romanian tennis pair of Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea played brilliantly to enter the men's doubles final of the 574,965-euro Stuttgart Open here.

The fourth seeds beat Polish-Serbian second seeds Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic 6-3, 6-7(6), 10-7 in an hour and 12 minutes on the centre court of the Tennis Club Weissenhof late on Saturday.

They will take on Austrian-Brazilian third seeds Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares in the final on Sunday who got a walkover from Spanish combine of Rafael Nadal and Feliciano Lopez on the grass court tournament.

Bopanna-Mergea kept a perfect record over the second seeds after having beaten them in the Madrid Open final last month to clinch the clay court title.

The first set saw Bopanna-Mergea get the lone break point available. A couple of double faults at crucial junctures also did not aid Matkowski and Zimonjic, helping their opponents take home the set.

There were three breakpoint opportunities available but Bopanna and Mergea saved all. However, the second seeds came back to win the second set in a tie-break and push the match into the decider.

Bopanna-Mergea played sensibly to win the super tie-break. Matkowski-Zimonjic also made life difficult for them by serving a double fault at such an important time.

--Indo-Asian New Service

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