Miami (USA) – The title of the Miami Masters 1000 doubles bracket will be decided between the two main partnerships of the tournament. In this Thursday’s semifinals, the 1st seed duo formed by the Indian Rohan Bopanna and the Australian Matthew Ebden, and the team of the North American Austin Krajicek and the Croatian Ivan Dodig, second pre-registered, confirmed their favoritism and will face each other in the end of Saturday.
Regardless of who wins the tournament, it is certain that Bopanna will regain number 1 in the rankings in next Monday’s update. Currently in second place, the 44-year-old veteran will be tied with his partner in the number of points, but has an advantage in the tiebreaker due to having fewer tournaments played. In turn, Krajicek will lose two positions and will be the new third place, equal with Dodig, who will gain one place to reach fourth place.
Among the four finalists in this edition, none of them has a title in Miami and only Krajicek had already reached the decision, finishing runner-up last year alongside Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. In the current season, Bopanna and Ebden have already won the Australian Open and reached the final in Adelaide, while Krajicek and Dodig have not yet lifted any trophy, with their best result being runner-up in Dubai.
+ Click here and follow the TenisBrasil Channel on WhatsApp
The first to take the court this Thursday, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden faced the Spanish Marcel Granollers and the Argentine Horacio Zeballos, 4th seeds in the competition. With a firm and confident performance, they needed just 53 minutes to score the splits of 6/1 and 6/4. Highlight for the 91% of points gained with the first serve and 78% with the second serve, in addition to not giving up a single break-point in the entire match.
Soon after, it was Austin Krajicek and Ivan Dodig’s turn to face a tough fight against the Germans Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz, seventh favorites of the tournament. In a game lasting 1h49, they needed to go to the match-tiebreak to score 6/4, 6/7 (4-7) and 10-7. In the decisive tiebreaker, the North American and the Croatian found themselves at a 6-1 and 7-3 disadvantage, but then won seven consecutive points and secured their place in the final.
