Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic charged into the ATP Masters 1000 winners' circle together in style on Monday at the Cincinnati Open.
The fourth-seeded duo eased past home favourites Mackenzie McDonald and Alex Michelsen 6-2, 6-4 in the championship match in Ohio. Arevalo and Pavic did not face a break point and converted three of five of their own, according to Infosys ATP Stats, as they sealed their fourth tour-level title as a team in just 63 minutes.
🏆 Cincinnati Doubles Champions! 🏆
No. 4 seeds Pavic and Arevalo defeat McDonald/Michelsen 6-2 6-4!@CincyTennis | #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/OEcPhxLAJd
“It’s never easy in the finals, especially [against] those guys,” said Pavic. “They won a couple of great matches this week, they beat the number one seed, [who] for me at the moment are maybe in the best shape on tour, so they proved they can beat anybody in doubles. They are good singles guys, good players so it was not easy.
“It was a bit of a different matchup, we didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t seen them playing that much, compared to when we played the other doubles teams. We were playing smart, we were playing good [doubles] from the beginning and throughout the week we were playing some good tennis.”
It was the first Masters 1000 crown that Arevalo and Pavic have won together. Since first teaming in January, the pair has also won a Grand Slam title at Roland Garros and two ATP 250 crowns in Hong Kong and Geneva, respectively.
“We have been playing the whole year, so we started playing well and then we had a little bit of ups and downs, but we kept believing, we kept working together as a team, with our coaches and everything,” reflected Arevalo. “After that we started getting better results and now we are feeling confident together, we have good communication.
“I’ve always said it’s super important in a doubles team to have a good vibe on and off the court and I think that’s something that we [have been] doing pretty well for the last [few] months. It takes a lot of work, a lot of dedication and we are just happy that we were able [to win] and we were lucky to get through this match and the title as well.”
With Monday’s victory, Arevalo became the first titlist from El Salvador in Cincinnati tournament history. He and Pavic also consolidated second place in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Rankings. They are now just 460 points behind leaders Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos, whom McDonald and Michelsen upset in the semi-finals in Cincinnati.
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