Umag [Croatia], July 30 : The duo of Blaz Rola and Nino Serdarusic capped a dream first tournament as a pair with a hugely scenic title triumph at the Croatia Open in Umag.
The Slovenian-Croatian wild cards saved three championship points in a thrilling Match Tie-break before triumphing 4-6, 7-6(2), 15-13 against top seeds Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori.
Rola and Serdadusic had an 8/4 lead in the Match Tie-break but dropped the next five points, putting themselves in danger of suffering a sad loss. However, they maintained their composure on 8/9, 10/11, and 11/12 to deny their Italian opponents the win three times before securing a two-hour, seven-minute victory.
"Unbelievable, crazy week. I never thought that we would end up on the final day, at the ceremony with the trophy in our hands. We played really well and what a match today. I think we were a little bit lucky, you could say that," ATP quoted Rola as saying, who shared that the team received its wild card just before the draw was made.
Rola and Serdarusic, who earlier this week overcame second seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul in the semi-finals in straight sets, won their third match tie-break victory of the week. Both were competing in their first tour-level final; neither has previously taken part in an ATP Tour event in 2023.
Due to the tight loss, Bolelli was denied a third Umag championship. The 37-year-old and Fabio Fognini won the clay-court ATP 250 in both 2011 and 2022, making them 11-time tour-level doubles champions.
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