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  • Singles Finalist Granollers-Pujol Loses Doubles Final to Gulbis, Schuettler

    4/20/08 6:30 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - Marcel Granollers-Pujol went for the first leg of the doubles-singles titles sweep in Houston on Saturday evening, but came up short. He’ll have a chance to redeem himself on Sunday against James Blake in the singles final.

    Ernests Gulbis and Rainer Schuettler won the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship doubles title on Saturday night, defeating Marcel Granollers-Pujol and Pablo Cuevas 7-5, 7-6(3) on Saturday night.

    It was an interesting pairing, the 19-year-old Gulbis from Latvia and the 31-year-old Schuettler of Germany. It was an even more interesting doubles match, which did not come as a surprise since all four men on the court were primarily singles players. Cross-court baseline rallies usually not seen in doubles were almost the norm, and often times teams returned serve with both players at the back of the court.

    As a result, four breaks of serve took place in the first eight games. The decisive break came with Granollers-Pujol serving at 5-6, deuce. Under the no-ad scoring system, it was the deciding point of the game and therefore set point for Gulbis and Schuettler. After a brief baseline rally with Gulbis, Granollers-Pujol sent a forehand long to throw away the set.

    Although the unorthodox doubles tactics continued into the second set, the quality of tennis soared and the breaks of serve diminished. Neither team could gain an advantage, but finally Gulbis and Schuettler got out to a 40-0 lead on Granollers-Pujol’s serve at 4-5, therefore holding four match points. All four, however, were squandered.
    Cuevas and Granollers-Pujol then had two break points on Gulbis’ serve in the 5-5 game, but those chances were denied when Gulbis saved the deuce point with some nifty hand-work at the net. Gulbis and Schuettler really dominated play with more aggressive tennis in the second set even though it was not reflected in the score, so it was not a big surprise that they had little trouble in the tiebreaker.

    For Gulbis, this was both his first final and first title of any kind on the ATP Tour. It also helped avenge a disappointing effort against Granollers-Pujol in the first round of the singles event. “I'm happy because I wasn't satisfied at all with my singles performance,” Gulbis said. “It was my first tournament on clay and it was tough for me to go from the hard court season to clay. But I'm happy I played better and better every match in doubles.”

    Granollers-Pujol, enjoying an amazing week, can still notch a title—and an even bigger one—if he upsets top-seeded James Blake in Sunday’s singles final. The Spaniard had not lost a set until his semifinal match with Wayne Odesnik, in which he saved to match points in the second set before winning in three.

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