The doubles winners are enjoying good results of late: RAKUTEN OPEN 2012
Peya/Soares Win Second Straight ATP World Tour Doubles Title
Tokyo, Japanby ATP Staff
07.10.2012
Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares won their second ATP World Tour doubles titles in as many weeks on Sunday.
The fourth seeds added the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships silverware to their Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur trophy with a 6-3, 7-6(5) win over top seeds Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek in one hour and 46 minutes.
Peya and Soares split $91,030 in prize money and 500 ATP Doubles Rankings points, while Paes and Stepanek share $41,100 and earn 300 points.
"The [ATP World Tour] 500s are really tough," said Soares. "We had a great win yesterday against [Tomas] Berdych and [Nenad] Zimonjic, an amazing team. And today, to beat a team that’s played in two Grand Slam finals this year, it’s good to know we’re on the right track. Once you start beating these teams, you know you have a shot at the bigger tournaments. We’re very happy for that but also looking forward to next week."
Alexander Peya admitted, "I think we were returning really well throughout the whole match. We started off great. They came back strong, but we kept on playing our game. We managed to break them three times in the first set and came back from a break down in the second set. We played a few pretty good points at the end to win it. I think overall we deserved it."
Peya improved to 4-8 lifetime in ATP World Tour finals, while Soares is now 8-9 in titles matches. Paes, 39, dropped to 50-36 and Stepanek to 15-12.
Soares said, "I got in touch with Alex and his coach. We talked for a few weeks, and then decided to give the partnership a shot. After the Winston-Salem Open, we had eight days where we put in a lot of work before the US Open. We had a good tournament there. We didn't play our best tennis, but we felt we were improving as a team. I think last week and this week, we felt we getting better and better."
Paes and Stepanek clinched their first team berth at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London next week, after they booked a place in the Tokyo final. They dropped to a 26-9 match record on the season, which includes two titles.
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2012/10/40/Doubles-Tokyo-Final-Peya-Soares-Win.aspx
