Blaz Rola and Nino Serdarusic capped a dream first tournament as a duo with a hugely dramatic final victory Saturday at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag.
The Slovenian-Croatian wild cards saved three championship points in a thrilling Match Tie-break before prevailing 4-6, 7-6(2), 15-13 against top seeds Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori. Rola and Serdadusic had led the Match Tie-break 8/4 but then lost five points in a row to stand on the brink of a heartbreaking defeat. They held their nerve at 8/9, 10/11 and 11/12 to thrice deny their Italian opponents victory, however, before sealing a two-hour, seven-minute win.
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It was a third Match Tie-break win of the week for Rola and Serdarusic, who also defeated second seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul in straight sets in the semi-finals. Both were competing in their maiden tour-level final, and neither player had competed at a 2023 ATP Tour event prior to this week.
The narrow defeat meant Bolelli missed out on a third Umag title. The 37-year-old, an 11-time tour-level doubles champion, lifted the trophy at the clay-court ATP 250 in both 2011 and 2022 alongside Fabio Fognini.
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