Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo celebrate with the trophy a
(Photo by Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)
Marcelo Arevalo of Salvador and Croatia’s Mate Pavic won the men’s French Open doubles title defeating the Italian partnership of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-5 6-3.
Playing only their second major as a team, the Salvadoran-Croatian partnership also dispatched the top pairing and favourites, Marcel Granollers and Horacia Zeballos in the semi-finals.
For the 30-year-old Pavic the victory completed a personal career Golden Slam having now won all four majors and the Olympic gold and joins Pierre-Hughes Herbert and Nicolas Mahut to have won the doubles at all the four slams.
“It feels special,” the Croatian said during an emotional trophy speech. “I want to say a special thanks to Marcelo for bringing me here to the top. He knows how it’s done, a few years ago he won it. First time [at Roland Garros] obviously, so I feel very happy.”
Arevalo, 33, won his lone previous major crown two years ago in Paris alongside Jean-Julien Rojer.
“A lot of emotion,” added the Salvadoran. “I want to thank Mate for trusting me, for believing in me to fight together. Two crazy weeks, a lot of tough matches… We did it together, man. I’m really happy and the second title here feels special.”
The duo has also won the doubles titles in Hong Kong and Geneva and in Paris, they lost just one set in their run to the title and that was against the No.1 seeds in the semis.
In the final, they converted all three of their break points while saving six of seven break points against them and the victory moved them up to second place in the doubles team rankings which is currently headed by Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden.
Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo jump for joy at winning
(Photo by Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)
