The first seeded Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic started with a victory at the ATP Finals in London. The Styrian and his Croatian partner defeated Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in two sets.
By Jens Huiber from London
There are easier tasks than winning a double match against the reigning French Open winners. Even if you won the Australian Open this year. Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, however, would have wished for different opponents than Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut at the start of the ATP Finals. Against the two Frenchmen there have been just as many defeats in three previous matches.
In the fourth attempt, it finally worked, the Styrian and his Croatian partner defeated the two French with 6:4 and 7:6 (3) and thus created a good starting position for advancing to the semi-finals.
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Marach and Pavic started strong, then took Nicolas Mahut’s first service game to 2-1. Mahut then mutated into bad luck: In the ninth game, the 36-year-old fell unluckily into one of the covers in front of the Linesman’s chair and suffered a wound on his shin bone. The result was a seven-minute break, Mahut had to leave the court for treatment.
The start of the working week had also shown itself on the grandstands, but at the start of the Monday programme some places remained vacant. Herbert and Mahut had only played 29 games together throughout the 2018 season, qualifying for London on the last imprint.
For Marach and Pavic, the start of the finals was already the 74th match 2018, regardless of the outcome of the tournament in the O2 Arena, the two will end the year at position one of the ATP world rankings. As a couple, mind you.
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The second set was quickly running in the direction of Marach/Pavic, Herbert helped with a double mistake to the break in the first game. Mahut was noticeably impaired, a comeback of the French seemed unthinkable until the eighth game, but then Pavic gave up his serve. The second run was decided in the tiebreak, Marach/Pavic led quickly with two mini-breaks, finished the match after a playing time of 1:46 hours with their second match point.
Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic will play against the winners of the Monday evening match between Mike Bryan and Jack Sock against Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo.