MARCEL Granollers and Horacio Zeballos saved three championship points against the all-British pair of Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski to claim their first US Open men’s doubles title.
Salisbury and Skupski stood one point from victory with their opponents serving at 5-4 down in the deciding third set.
Granollers and Zeballos mounted a stunning comeback to win the match 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 in a thrilling final.
This victory marks the second Grand Slam triumph for the Spanish-Argentine pairing after their French Open win earlier this year.
They defeated the same British opponents in another three-set final at Roland Garros.
Zeballos described the match as incredibly close and expressed amazement at their comeback victory.
“I don’t really know how we won those last points after what we did during the match,“ he said.
Granollers had previously lost five Grand Slam doubles finals before his successes this season.
“Tennis sometimes is crazy because we were talking coming here that how close you are to lose the match, and then in 20 minutes you win the trophy,“ Granollers remarked.
Salisbury fell short in his bid for a fifth Grand Slam men’s doubles title after winning four times with previous partner Rajeev Ram.
Skupski had previously won the Wimbledon doubles title in 2023.
Salisbury stated they gave their best effort and could not have done anything differently.
“It was literally just one point,“ he said about the narrow margin of defeat. – AFP
