November 22, 2020 - Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares are the best doubles team in the world this year!
Croatian Davis Cup national team member Mate Pavic and Brazilian tennis player Bruno Soares are the best tennis doubles team in the world this year, which was confirmed on Saturday. Next year, they will hunt for trophies with other partners.
Pavic and Soares unhappily finished the group stage at the final tournament in London and did not make it to the semifinals thanks to a worse set-quotient than the remaining two pairs with two wins and one defeat. They came to the O2 Arena with only a 35-point advantage over American Rajeev Ram and Briton Joe Salisbury.
However, with the defeat of Austrian Melzer and Frenchman Roger-Vasselin in the semifinals, Ram and Salisbury remained behind by 35 points, so Pavic and Soares became the best doubles team in the world for the second time in their careers. Pavic did it two years ago with Austrian partner Oliver Marach, and Soares in 2016 with British partner Jamie Murray, with whom he will reunite next year.
In 2021, Mate Pavic will play with his teammate from the Croatia national team Nikola Mektic, who will fight for the title in London with Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof against Melzer and Roger-Vasselin.
"I am very happy that Bruno and I finished the year at number 1. It was a great partnership and a nice achievement for the end," said Mate Pavic, who has played with Soares as a permanent partner since the tournament at London's Queen's Club in 2019.
In a year and a half of joint performances, the Croatian-Brazilian duo won the US Open and the tournament in Montpellier in 2020, reached the finals of Roland Garros and the Paris Masters, and in 2019, won the Masters in Shanghai and lost the final in Stockholm.
"It is a special moment for us that we finished as number 1. I think it is a huge achievement that shows that we played well throughout the year, how constant we were, winning big tournaments. We will celebrate well and remember all the beautiful moments together on the court because we all went through a difficult year together," concluded Bruno Soares.
Source: HRT
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