Ivan Dodig-Austin Krajicek beat Romain Arneodo-Sam Weissborn to win Monte-Carlo Masters doubles title
Apr 16, 2023
Monte Carlo [Monaco], April 16 : Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek captured their first ATP Masters 1000 crown as a pair on Sunday as they overcome Monegasque-Austrian wild cards Romain Arneodo and Sam Weissborn 6-0, 4-6, 14-12 at the Monte-Carlo Masters.
The fifth seeds raced out of the blocks to quickly clinch the first set, before saving two match points in the Match Tie-break at 9/10 and 11/12 to eventually advance after one hour and 33 minutes.
"It's amazing, I think. This is the one I was missing in my collection and I played the final I think in 2014. It's great. I think every player who plays tennis at a professional level wants to win this tournament. It's the first tournament on clay, it's so prestigious and I'm really, really happy to have this trophy," ATP.com quoted Dodig as saying.
Monegasque Arneodo hoped to become the Principality's first home player to win the Open Era title (since 1968). The 30-year-old Weissborn of Austria arrived in Monte-Carlo with a 2-4 tour-level record, but had a dream run to the final, defeating seeds Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury and Lloyd Glasspool/Harri Heliovaara.
Backed by vocal support on Court Rainier III, they battled hard in the title match, but ultimately fell short, with Dodig and Krajicek holding their nerve in the closing stages to triumph.
"I think Romain and Sam played amazing all week. They beat unbelievable teams, some of the best teams in the world... They showed how good they can play and the [Match Tie-break] was really exciting and just really happy to win this one in an exciting match," said Dodig.
Dodig and Krajicek have now won five tour-level titles together, two of which have come on clay (Lyon 2022). Dodig, 38, who lost in the 2014 Monte-Carlo final to Marcelo Melo, has now won six ATP Masters 1000 titles. The victory on Sunday was Krajicek's first at this level.
"We played great. I mean, obviously being in a beautiful place like this, it's hard not to feel good. I thought we played good tennis all week. Served well and played well on the big moments. Today, those guys came up with some good stuff in the second set and when there's a tie-breaker it's always a little bit of a coin flip. So you just never know and it came down to a few points there at the end. Luckily, we were able to get it to go our way today," added Krajicek.
