The Gerry Weber Open doubles final, in Halle, Germany, couldn’t have been scripted any better. Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Marcelo Melo of Brazil, the No. 1 seeds, faced Alexander and Mischa Zverev, the unseeded hometown heroes, (even though they are from Hamburg). The match-up featured Kubot and Melo, the top team in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race to London against the brothers, who had upset Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of the US, the two-time defending champions, in the semifinals, 6-3, 6-3.
The teams had one previous encounter, which took place this year at the ATP Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo. The Polish/Brazilian tandem were victorious, 6-1, 6-7, 14-12. Going into the final, they had a 26-9 record in 2017. The Zverevs were 10-5 for the season, and had claimed the Open Sud De France title in early February in Montpellier.
Kubot and Melo brought the curtain down on the 2017 Gerry Weber Open, winning a thrilling contest, 5-7, 6-3, 10-8 over the Brothers Zverev. This, of course, was after the younger Zverev took a 6-1, 6-3 lesson from Roger Federer in the singles final.
Zverev had been looking to match a “royal” record established in 2005. Naturally, Federer, who has a lifetime contract at the Gerry Weber Open, set the standard. Twelve years ago, he defeated Marat Safin of Russia, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 for the singles trophy then teamed with countryman, Yves Allegro to down Joachim Johansson of Sweden and Safin, 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 and score the only Halle double in history. Older brother, Misha Zverev wanted to duplicate the success he had in 2008 when, with Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, joined forces to defeat Lukáš Dlouhý of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India, 4-6, 6-3, 10-3.
Halle, the ATP Tour 500 series tournament, always showcases the game’s top international stars. Saying that the competition is first rate understates the quality found in the draws, annually. The fact that Alexander Zverev dropped both singles and doubles finals puts him a rarefied group of players. Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia was doubled down on the Gerry Weber Stadion grass in 1996. He was defeated by Nicklas Kulti of Sweden 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the singles final, and then lost with Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic when he came up 6-1, 7-5 short against Byron Black of Zimbabwe and Grant Connell of Canada in the doubles battle. (Safin also had a “double loss” Sunday in 2005.)
In order to complete the Halle history course, it should be noted that, that in 2000, David Prinosil of Germany stopped Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-2 for singles honors, but was a 7-6, 7-6 finalist, with Mahesh Bhupathi of India, against the Swedish tandem Nicklas Kulti and Mikael Tillström. Federer downed Alejandro Falla of Colombia, 7-6, 7-6 in the 2014 singles final. Andre Begemann of Germany and Julian Knowle of Austria kept the legend from adding to his stellar Halle record by scoring a 1-6, 7-5, 12-10 over the singles winner and his Basel pal, Marco Chiudinelli.
The 25th Gerry Weber Open was historic. Roger Federer, along with Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, claimed the trophies, but Alexander Zverev gave every indication why he is not only the game’s future, but a resource Halle will treasure for years to come.
