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entertainment4 hours ago
Andreas Seppi and Simone Bolelli of Italy reached the doubles final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis championships with a straight sets (6-4 6-4) win over the Polish team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Friday.
Seppi and Bolelli have been in terrific form in Dubai and they have reached the final without dropping a set.
The Italians beat India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Pakistan's Aisam-ul Qureshi 6-4 6-2 in the first round while in the quarterfinals they defeated Great Britain's Jamie Murray and Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-4 6-3.
The Poles, on the other hand, had to fight their way to the semis. After having overcome Croatians Ivan Dodig and Marin Draganja with a tough 4-6 6-4 10-7 win in the first round, they found themselves in another topsy-turvy encounter against Daniel Nestor of Canada and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals which they won 3-6 6-3 10-5.
In Friday's first semifinal at the Centre Court, Bolelli and Seppi needed just 70 minutes to overcome the Polish team in perfect conditions to play tennis.
Unlike the hot Thursday afternoon, there was a nice breeze under grey skies on Friday as the Italians got into a fine rhythm, serving and volleying beautifully to make their way to the Dubai doubles final for the first time in their careers. Such was their control that they never faced a break point in the entire match.
Kubot and Matkowski, on the other hand, were broken twice.
Naturally, the Italians were pleased with the way they won their semifinal match on Friday.
"Yes, it was a very good win. And now we are playing the final tomorrow (Saturday). There is another chance for us to play another good match tomorrow," Seppi told reporters after the semifinal match.
The Italians though have already begun to look ahead as they are determined to help Italy win their world group first round Davis Cup clash against Switzerland.
"Yes, this year, we have the Olympics as well. But we don't know yet. We are still trying. We have the Davis Cup next week (March 4-6). We have to see if we can remain injury free because we are playing singles as well as doubles. It's good to play these matches. We have started to play better as a team."
ritu@khaleejtimes.com
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