Turin [Italy], November 16 : The duo of Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin progressed to the semifinals at the ATP Finals on Thursday.
The duo saved one match point to overcome Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek 6-4, 3-6, 15-13 in a Green Group qualification shootout thriller.
With a 2-1 record at the end of the round-robin, the fourth seeds advance to the final four together with Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos (2-0). Top seeds Dodig and Krajicek together with Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez (0-2) are eliminated after Green Group play concludes at 1-2.
In the match tie-break, Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin raised their game in a close contest held within the Pala Alpitour. They missed match point opportunities at 9/8, 10/9, and 11/10. They then managed to preserve one match point on 11/12 and, an hour and forty minutes later, won on their fifth match point.
Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin moved forward, falling on their knees, then getting back up to give their boxers an embrace.
Gonzalez is the third Mexican player in tournament history to advance to the semifinals, and he and Roger-Vasselin are making their first appearance at the year-end tournament together. This year, the French-Mexico duo has won five titles at the tour level, including the ATP Masters 1000 titles in Miami and Paris.
After losing in the round-robin stage of the 2022 competition, Krajicek and Dodig were participating in the year-end tournament for the second time as a team. In 2023, they shared five titles, with Roland Garros being the most notable.
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