NEW YORK – Marcel Granolas rushed to the right and slammed Neil Skepski’s serve into the open corner of the court, breaking the serve and letting Carlos Alcaraz jump into the air to celebrate.
Just a few minutes ago, Granoller and Holocio Zeboros were separated from losing the US Open Men’s Doubles Final. After that, they were champions.
The Granollers and Zeballos won their second Grand Slam title of the season on Saturday, edging Joe Salisbury and Skupski 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5.
“Tennis is crazy at times,” Granollers said at a press conference.
The No. 5 seeded team also won the French Open, which defeated Salisbury and Skupski, to give the longtime duo their first two major titles and $1 million on Saturday after losing in the first three finals.
They were close to losing. The British duo holds three match points leading 5-4 in the third set. However, the Granollers and Zeballos scored the next eight points and ultimately got their only break in the match with a return on the Granollers’ 6-5 lead.
The Granollers then offered it, saying he later knew he knew Alcaraz, his fellow Spanish, who plays No. 1 Jannik Sinner on Sunday in the men’s final, was watching in the training room.
“I saw the video too. Then I went to the restaurant and saw him,” Granollers said. “Yeah, he was very happy for us.”
Salisbury won three straight games at Razzie Fram from 2021 to ’23, trying out his fourth US Open Men’s Doubles title. He and Skupski became regular partners this year, but it was close but not perfect. US Open was the fifth final of the year, but they dropped everything.
“We’ve been working hard and these finals will one day become our way,” Skupski said.
Tight finals – Granoller and Zeboros scored a 98-97 edge in total points, but this year they brought the third Grand Slam victory for sixth seeded Salisbury and Shpski. They also won a matchup in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
The Granollers and Zeballos first teamed up in 2019 and arrived at the US Open Final that year. They also reached the finals at Wimbledon in 2021 and 2023, but were unable to break through to the title in Paris this year.
They then reached the Wimbledon semi-finals but were not playing together due to an injury to Granoller.
He and Zeballos became the first men’s team to win multiple majors in a year since Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in 2019.
“Of course, this is an amazing feeling, especially since I came here in 2019 and lost the final,” Zeboros said. “We were very close. I think we learned a lot from this final to try and push this more.”
This report uses information from the Associated Press.
