Marcus Daniell wins his fifth ATP doubles title

Marcus Daniell has won his fifth ATP doubles title and first with Austrian partner Philipp Oswald. The 30-year-old Kiwi and Oswald have turned in a superb performance to beat the world’s top ranked team, Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-3 6-4 in 1 hour 13 in the final of the inaugural Tour event in Sardinia.

Cabal and Farah are ranked number one and two in the ATP doubles rankings.

“We have had a pretty tough month.” Daniell said. We lost matches early in tournaments since we moved on to clay. But we have put the work in and thought good things would happen and today we played top level tennis. In the end it looked comfortable on the scoreboard but there was a sudden death deuce point at 5-4 in the second set, and if they had broken back it could have gone the other way.” 

Daniell had notched up with wins over fellow Kiwis Michael Venus and Artem Sitak in the semi-finals and quarter finals, respectively.

They went up an early break in the first set and although Cabal and Farah broke Oswald to get back on serve at 2-3,Daniell and Oswald were in the ascendancy throughout and they broke serve again before Oswald served out the set saving two break points in the process.

Daniell and Oswald broke the Colombians again at the start of the second set and held serve throughout to clinch an impressive victory.

The Kiwi is projected to climb to 44 in the ATP doubles rankings when they come out next week.

“I really think this is a big step on the road fort Oz and me as a team, we have beaten some of the best teams in the world in the past. But to win out first title and beat two of the top teams in the world back to back in the semi finals and finals is a real statement.”

Daniell and Oswald head to Cologne tomorrow for the ATP tournament there where they have been drawn against German wildcards Daniel Altmaier and Oscar Otte in the first round.