Melo/Soares Fight Back To Capture Stockholm Title

Written by: Staff on 21st October 2012

Melo/Soares Fight Back To Capture Stockholm Title

epa03441232 Brazil's Marcelo Melo, right, and his teammate Bruno Soares, left, hold the trophy after winning the doubles final against Sweden's Robert Lindstedt and his teammate Serbia's Nenad Zimonjicin in the ATP Stockholm Open tennis tournament in the Royal Tennis Hall in Stockholm, Sweden, October 21, 2012. EPA/SOREN ANDERSSON / SCANPIX SWEDEN OUT |

(Original Story: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2012/10/42/Doubles-Stockholm-Final-Soares-Melo-Win-Title.aspx)

Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares won their fourth ATP World Tour team title in their ninth final at the If Stockholm Open on Sunday.

The third seeds defeated top seeds Robert Lindstedt and Nenad Zimonjic 6-7(4), 7-5, 10-6 in one hour and 53 minutes at the ATP World Tour 250 indoor tournament.

Melo and Soares split €26,700 in prize money and earned 250 ATP Doubles Team Rankings points. Melo is now 10-11 in tour-level finals, while Soares is now 9-9 lifetime. Swede Lindstedt (16-17 in title matches) and Serbian Zimonjic (45-30) share €14,030 and 150 points.

“I am very happy,” said Soares. “I really enjoy playing and being able to win such a tough match – coming back from a set and a break – was even better.”

Melo said, “We are happy to be here and to win. We’ll be back here next year.”

Lindstedt and Zimonjic started strongly by breaking Soares to love for a 2-0 lead, before Lindstedt saved one break point opportunity in the third game. Melo and Soares responded at 3-5, breaking Zimonjic to 30 and could have broken for 6-5 if they had converted one break point on Lindstedt’s serve. In the tie-break, Lindstedt and Zimonjic took a 4-1 lead, before Melo and Soares won three straight points. Both teams won 66 per cent of their service points in the 54-minute set.

In the second set, Soares had his serve broken to 30 in the third game. But lapses in concentration by Lindstedt and Zimonjic got the Brazilians back into the match as they won five of the next seven games to take a 5-4 lead. Melo and Soares lost just nine service points in the set to level the score.

In the Match tie-break, the Brazilians recovered from an early mini break to capture their first non clay-court title (also 2010-Nice, 2011-Costa do Sauipe and Santiago). Soares is now 4-1 in finals this season.

Lindstedt has qualified for the 2012 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals with Romanian Horia Tecau. The season-ending championship will be held at The O2 in London from 5-12 November.

Topics: ATP tennis news, Bruno Soares, Marcelo Melo, Robert Lindstedt, Sports, Stockholm Open 2012, Tennis News