ATP: Oliver Marach wins with Mate Pavic tournament in Geneva

Oliver Marach and his Croatian partner Mate Pavic delivered a perfect dress rehearsal for the French Open in Geneva on Saturday. The 37-year-old Styrian won the fourth tennis tournament of the year after Doha, Auckland and the Australian Open.

After defending a match ball in the Champions tiebreak, Marach/Pavic won against Ivan Dodig/Rajeev Ram (CRO/USA) 3:6, 7:6(3), 11:9 after 1:47 hours, “We fought our way through the match,” said Pavic. “They’re tough opponents and they served really well.”

The already leading duo in the Race to London, i.e. the 2018 annual ranking, has now also taken the lead in the ATP double world ranking of the past 12 months.

“I’m very happy about winning the tournament,” said Marach. “I won in Gstaad last year, so I always seem to like it a lot in Switzerland.”

Marach, whose best ranking so far was fourth, climbs to second place in the official ATP ranking. Pavic will stay 50 points off Marach on Monday.

The 37-year-old Styrian is the new number two but still the new record man in Austrian tennis. Never before has an ÖTV player been better placed in the double ranking of men or women.

The Austrian-Croatian pair now have a 31-6 season record, starting the year with 17 consecutive wins, including the Australian Open triumph.

In the valuation of the current year, the ATP race, the respective pairings are always kept. Marach/Pavic will lead the list with almost 200 points ahead of the US twins Bob and Mike Bryan.