Top seeds Granollers/Zeballos knock off fan favourites Bublik/Shelton in Rome SFs

Top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos won their fourth consecutive straight-sets match on Saturday to advance to the final at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. With a 6-4, 6-4 victory against singles stars Alexander Bublik and Ben Shelton, the Spanish-Argentine duo set up a title match against Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic.

Granollers/Zeballos saved all three break points against them, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and overcame six aces from their powerful opponents. They made a healthy 73 per cent of their first serves (compared to 55 per cent for their opponents) and lost just two points on second serve (12/14).

The longtime partners, who won the Rome title in 2020, are seeking their sixth ATP Masters 1000 crown together. With eight tour-level titles as a pair, the duo is bidding for its first trophy of 2024 after three final defeats, including in Indian Wells. Prior to this season, they have won at least one title each year since 2019.

Earlier this month in Madrid, Granollers/Zeballos advanced to the semi-finals with a dramatic Match Tie-break win to clinch their rise to individual co-No. 1 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings. Their run was cut short due to a Zeballos injury that forced them to withdraw ahead of their next match.

First Masters 1000 final as a team 💪

Arevalo/Pavic knock out Bolelli/Vavassori 6-2 7-6(5).@InteBNLdItalia | #IBI24 pic.twitter.com/dZlMuMEwNO

— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 18, 2024

Arevalo and Pavic also advanced to Sunday's final without losing a set. They continued their run earlier on Saturday with a 6-2, 7-6(5) victory against Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori. Both doubles semi-finals were played on centre court.

The unseeded finalists knocked out two seeded teams to reach the semis, beating fifth seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the second round and third seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the quarters.