French Open 2022: marathon doubles in the greenhouse
Anyone who spent Thursday afternoon at the semi-finals of the French Open 2022 in men's doubles did everything right.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jun 02, 2022, 05:35 pm
By Jens Huiber from Roland Garros
The Simonne-Mathieu court is still the freshest stadium in Roland Garros, but the grandstand capacities in the botanical garden are not sufficient for the big individual matches. On the other hand, the idea of dedicating this arena to doubles players, like this Thursday, has charm. Why the legends play on the oversized Suzanne-Lenglen is another matter. For Navratilova, Ivanisevic, Sabatini and Co. the 14 would have done it. Especially since the fan connection would be completely different there.
Well. Back to the Simonne-Mathieu. From noon onwards, two older men with a solid stomach (Rohan Bopanna, 42, and Matwe Middelkoop, 38) against two men who celebrate every point as if it were the match point that would bring them tournament victory - Marcelo Arevalo and Jean - Julien Rojer. This pairing was not necessarily to be expected in a semi-final, Bopanna/Middelkoop started seeded in 16th position, Arevalo/Rojer in 12th.
But the Indian and his Dutch partner defeated Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic in a true highlight match in round three, with Court 7 shaking with excitement. And Arevalo/Rojer eliminated the last German hope and number seven at the same stage of the tournament with Tim Pütz and Michael Venus.
Spitzne doubles tennis for more than five hours
The rough overview of the spectators present suggested that quite a few of the fans themselves have long since given up singles and are concentrating on pair skating. You will not be disappointed: there is almost two and a half hours of high-class double sport from Bopanna and Co., which ends in a match tiebreak and the better end for Arevalo/Rojer. Surprisingly, the successful match point cheered much less than the point to 30 all at the score of 2: 3 in the second set.
Next stop: finals. Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek are waiting there. Who were in no hurry against Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos either. The third sentence in particular had it all. Dodig/Krajicek took the lead early with a break, the Spaniard and the Argentine equalized to make it 5:5. But Granollers lost his serve right away. Which Dodog gratefully accepted and served out at 15. And thus ended more than five hours of grandiose double entertainment.
Here the double tableau in Roland Garros
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