Bolelli/Vavassori reach Roland Garros final

Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori exacted Grand Slam revenge on Thursday to reach the championship match at Roland Garros.

The Italian pair downed second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 in a one-hour, 58-minute semi-final encounter on Court Simonne-Mathieu. The Italians converted four of nine break points they earned, according to Infosys Stats, to improve to 25-8 as a team in 2024.

Bolelli and Vavassori began their year together by reaching the final at the Australian Open, where it was Bopanna and Ebden who denied them their first major title together at Melbourne Park. The Indian-Australian pair also prevailed against Bolelli and Vavassori in March in Miami, but the Italians have since levelled the two teams’ Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 2-2 with triumphs on clay in Rome and now at Roland Garros.

Their victory on Thursday was a continuation of a huge tournament for Italian tennis: Jannik Sinner is into the semi-finals of the singles, having already ensured he will on Monday become the first player from his country to reach No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Jasmine Paolini is into the last four of the women’s singles, and has also partnered Sara Errani to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles.

The 11th-seeded Bolelli and Vavassori are are currently third in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, but will rise to first if they can lift the title in Paris. Now into the final on their team debut at the clay-court major, they will take on top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos or ninth seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic in the final. Arevalo and Pavic on Thursday ended the run of Petros Tsitsipas and Stefanos Tsitsipas with a 7-5, 6-4 triumph.