New York (AFP) – Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos saved three championship points against all-British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski on Saturday to win their first US Open men’s doubles title. Salisbury and Skupski were a point away from winning with their opponents serving down 5-4 in the third set, but Granollers and Zeballos fought back to prevail 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5.
It is a second Grand Slam triumph for Spain’s Granollers and Argentina’s Zeballos. They also beat Salisbury and Skupski in three sets at this year’s French Open final. “When you play these kind of matches, it’s so unfair there’s a winner and a loser,” said Zeballos. “I don’t really know how we…won those last points after what we did during the match. We kept fighting. I think if I had to describe the match with one phrase, it would be ‘never give up.'”
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Granollers had finished on the losing side in five Grand Slam doubles finals before this year, three of those playing with Zeballos. “Tennis sometimes is crazy, because we were talking coming here about how close you are to lose the match, and then in 20 minutes you win the trophy,” said Granollers.
Salisbury fell short in his bid for a fifth Grand Slam crown in men’s doubles after winning four times with Rajeev Ram. Skupski won at Wimbledon in 2023. “We did everything we could. We competed well. I don’t think there’s anything we could have done differently,” said Salisbury. “It was literally just one point.”
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