A sweet revenge. Warm and sunny day in Rome and a Pietrangeli full in every row of seats was the scene of the meeting of the round of 16 of the doubles tournament between Simone Bolelli/Andrea Vavassori And Rohan Bopanna/Matthew Ebeden (#2 seeding). The Final of the Australian Open 2024 took place in this second round in Rome and the Azzurri took their revenge, recalling the final act in Melbourne.
On the red Capitoline earth Bolelli and Vavassori won with a score of 6-2 6-4, showing a greater affinity with the earth compared to their opponents. In particular, Bolelli impressed with his performance. On the path of the Emilian and Piedmontese there will be the no. 7 of the seeding, Koolhof/Mekticand it will certainly be a complicated challenge.
In the first set it is immediately clear what Simone and Andrea’s intentions are: great aggressiveness in the response to try to put Bopanna in difficulty in terms of mobility and taking advantage of Ebden’s inaccuracies. The break is immediate and the Azzurri build other chances to repeat, as in the third and fifth games. An appointment only postponed because thanks to some excellent play by Bolelli the double break became reality and was confirmed in the next game (6-2).
In the second set Bolelli and Vavassori once again put their rivals in crisis on serve and went one break ahead, but in this case they were not sufficiently clear-headed in managing the advantage they had gained. However, the Bel Paese’s tennis players did well to get another break in the fifth game, eliminating three counter-break chances with Vavassori on serve. The Italian double shows what he is made of in the sixth game, realizing the double break and serving for the match at 5-2. Vavassori, however, makes a few too many mistakes and the closure isn’t there. Bolelli takes care of it in the ninth game to bring the curtain down on 6-4, with a turn of service to zero.
