Zeballos unlocked a new ATP level: he won his first grass doubles tournament alongside Granollers

Grass was historically an elusive surface for Argentine tennis players. This Sunday the left-handed from Mar del Plata Orazio Zeballo unlocked a new level in his career by meeting up with the Spaniard Marcel Granollers his first grass title in the flirtatious tournament The ATP 500 from Hallein Germany, one of the most important of the tour before Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the season.

As if to frame what this title represents for Argentine tennis, only one player had managed to raise a trophy on the grass in the last decade (at ATP level): he was the man of Tandil who Gonzalezwhich together with Italian Simone Bolelli were consecrated in the 250cc in Mallorca, after the retirement of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Gómez-Herrera before the final.

The truth is that Zeballos, 37, made a great performance alongside the Catalan Granollers by beating Germany’s Tim Puetz and Australian Michael Venus in the final. 6-4, 5-7 (5) and 14-12in one hour and 52 minutes on the central court Owl Arena.

Mar del Plata is the number 4 in the world doubles rankinggot his 19 title in the specialty, first of the year and seventh paired with the Spanish.

Together with the Catalan Granollers he had won two tournaments on hard courts (Canada 2019 and Cincinnati 2021) and four on clay (Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Rome in 2020 and Madrid 2021).

Zeballos and Granollers were credited with a prize of 131,110 euros and 500 points for the ranking for their victory in Halle, a city located about 170 kilometers southwest of Berlin.