Zhang lifts historic doubles title with Machac in Marseille

Tomas Machac and Zhang Zhizhen’s fledgling partnership bagged an early title Sunday, when the pair completed an impressive title run at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille.

Having reached the Australian Open semi-finals on team debut last month, Machac and Zhang eased past Patrik Niklas-Salminen and Emil Ruusuvuori 6-3, 6-4 to lift the trophy at the indoor ATP 250 in France. Machac and Zhang saved all six break points they faced in their 67-minute championship-match triumph to improve to 8-1 as a team.

🏆 Marseille doubles champions 🏆

Zhang + Machac lift the @Open13 title after getting the better of Niklas-Salminen/Ruusuvuori 6-3 6-4!#Open13Provence pic.twitter.com/gnyq6aknrV

— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 11, 2024

With the win, Machac became the first Czech player to win an ATP Tour doubles title since Jevaby in Cordoba in 2019, while Zhang continues to break new ground for his country. The 27-year-old Zhang, who is the first Chinese player to have broken the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in singles, is the first ATP Tour doubles champion from his nation.

Purcell/Thompson triumph in Dallas

^{Photo: Alex Smith/Dallas Open}
Fourth seeds Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson won the Dallas Open Sunday by defeating William Blumberg and Rinky Hijikata 6-4, 2-6, 10-8.

The Aussies are now 20-5 in tour-level matches together. They also won the Houston title one year ago.

Purcell and Thompson lost just a single set en route to the crown. They saved five of the seven break points they faced to emerge victorious.

Gonzalez/Molteni go back to back in Cordoba

^{Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez celebrate their successful Cordoba Open title defense with family and team. Photo: Cordoba Open}

Top seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni successfully defended their Cordoba Open title when they defeated Frenchmen Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul 6-4, 6-1 to claim their seventh career team crown.

The duo claimed five titles last season, including their first ATP Masters 1000 crown in Cincinnati, which followed three ATP 500 titles in Washington, Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro.

Molteni now counts four Cordoba crowns in his career haul of 17 tournament victories. Gonzalez collected his 18th title, 13 of which have come on clay.