June 23, 2022 - The Croatian doubles side will play in the Eastbourne International semi-final match today around 1:30 pm. 

Nikola Mektić and Mate Pavić will play in the doubles semifinals at the ATP tournament in Eastbourne, where they beat the American-French doubles side of Maxime Cressy - Hugo Humbert 7-6 (9), 6-1, in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

This was the sixth consecutive victory for the current Olympic and Wimbledon winners who started their series last week at London’s Queen’s Club. In the first set, the Croatian duo missed the break advantage (4-3), and in the tie-break, they saved two set points (6-7, 8-9). In the second set, Mektić and Pavić took a 3-0 lead, and Cressy and Humbert only managed to catch a consolation game.

This is Pavić's tenth consecutive victory on grass. Before the title in London, he won the tournament in Stuttgart with partner Pole Hubert Hurkacz.

For a spot in their sixth joint final in 2022, and the 18th title match since they merged at the start of last season, Mektić and Pavić will play against Briton Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares, who were better than the British-Finnish side of Glasspool - Heliovaara 6-4, 7-5. The Croatian side won against Glasspool - Heliovaara in Sunday's final at the Queen's Club.

Recall, after clinching the title in Rome and Geneva this year, Mektić and Pavić won the Queen's Club last weekend for their 12th joint title and 15th victory in the last 16 matches. The duo awaits Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam tournament of the season where they will work to defend the title. Last year, not only did these two win Wimbledon before celebrating in the historic all-Croatian doubles final at the Tokyo Olympics, but they finished the year as the best doubles team in the world. 

Ivan Dodig and his American partner Austin Krajicek will also fight for a place in the final. The Roland Garros finalists reached the semifinals by defeating French duo Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-5, 6-2. The semi-final rivals of the Croatian-American team will be Dutchman Matwe Middelkoop and Australian Luke Saville.

Source: HRT

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June 26, 2021 - The celebrated Croatian doubles team of Nikola Mektić and Mate Pavić have won the ATP tournament in Eastbourne after beating the American-British duo Rajeev Ram - Joe Salisbury 6-4, 6-3 in the final on Friday.

In the Eastbourne International final match that lasted an hour and three minutes, Mektić and Pavić served four aces, and the rivals made three double faults. The Croatian duo also never lost their serve, and Ram and Salisbury lost theirs 3 times, writes Gol.hr.

This was the ninth final this year for Mektić and Pavić and the 7th ATP tour title. 

"I am very happy with the title here after everything that has happened recently, getting ill in Paris. We are very happy with the way we came back, very fast, very quick. We found good form [this week]," Mektić said for ATP Tour.

“I think we played an excellent match. We have played them three times and they are always tough matches. It goes back to a few points, we saved a couple of break points, and they didn’t," added Pavić. 

The Croatian duo is now 42-6 in their first year together.

Kontaveit and Ostapenko in the women's final

At the same time, the finalists in this same tournament in the women's individual competition are known. Estonian Anett Kontaveit will play against Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.
Kontaveit secured a place in the final after her rival in the semifinals on Friday, Italian Camila Giorgi, handed over the match in the first set.

There were no indications that Giorgi had any problems until the score was 4-5, but then she said she was injured and could not continue the match.

It was the end of a great week for the Italian, the 75th tennis player in the world, who eliminated fifth seed Karolina Plišková and first seed Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka on her way to the semifinals.

Ostapenko reached the final by defeating Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina, who eliminated Serena Williams 6-4, 6-1 in the Roland Garros final this year.

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