Granollers, Zeballos win US Open doubles for 2nd Grand Slam title of year

NEW YORK (AP) — Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos won the U.S. Open men's doubles championship Saturday for their second Grand Slam title of the season, edging Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5.

The No. 5-seeded team also won the French Open — beating Salisbury and Skupski as well — to give the longtime duo its first two major titles after losing in its first three finals.

"This year we are having results and I'm very happy to do it with him because we fight hard," Granollers said of his partner from Argentina after he and Zeballos won the $1 million title.

They were close to losing it, with the British duo holding three match points leading 5-4 in the third set. But Granollers and Zeballos won the next eight points, eventually getting their only break of the match when Granollers lunged to return Skupski's serve into an open corner for a 6-5 lead.

With fellow Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz watching and cheering from the workout room, Granollers then served it out.

Salisbury was trying for his fourth U.S. Open men's doubles title, having won three straight with Rajeev Ram from 2021-23. He and Skupski then became regular partners this year and it was one of close but not quite. The U.S. Open was their fifth final this year and they dropped all of them.

"We'll keep working hard and these finals will come our way one day," Skupski said.

The tight final — Granollers and Zeballos had a 98-97 edge in total points — gave the winners a third Grand Slam victory over the No. 6-seeded pair of Salisbury and Skupski this year. They also won a matchup in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

"So why not make it Australia," Skupski said, looking ahead to the next major. "We'll go again and hopefully we'll have another great match."

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis