Men's doubles finalists Horia Tecau and Robert Lindtstedt

The unseeded Austro-German partnership of Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner beat the 16th seeds, Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania, 6-1, 7-5, 7-5 to become the men’s doubles champions.
Petzschner said: “I think we had a really good start in the match. We played incredible tennis the first set. And in the second set we were the much better team. I think we just played one of our best matches out there. I think we deserved to win.”

The pair only got together at the beginning of this year and their games have clearly gelled extremely well in a short space of time. Melzer explained: “We’re just two good tennis players, two good singles players who proved in the past that we could play doubles. It was just a matter of how good we get together.

“We won a tournament in the beginning of the year. And then we just couldn’t play because we had different tournaments and a different schedule. ”

They found their schedules collided positively at Wimbledon. In this particular victory, the pair raced away with the first set in just 19 minutes.

The 16th seeds fought their way back into the second set, with the first four games taking as much time as the first set. Both pairs strategically used the ‘crouching tiger’ formation to good effect, which makes it tougher for the opponents to decide where to return the serve. Close volley interceptions at the net made for exciting points.

Lindstedt and Tecau’s team tactic talks mirrored each other behind synchronised sweat-banded left wrists, but in the end such secrecy didn’t help them. Both the second and third sets could so easily have gone to a tie-break, but Petzschner and Melzer made crucial breaks both times. For the second set a beautifully-arched, perfectly weighted lob by Melzer set up three set points. Then the Austrian trained a return straight down the unguarded trams for set.

The third set was also tight, though Lindstedt and Tecau were beginning to look a little embattled by the middle of the set. Petzschner and Melzer needed just one match point, at which juncture they collapsed together on the grass, in what would have resembled a football goal celebration had there been more people.
The two players are friends both on and off the court and, having shown such classy form in the Championships, are they keen to establish a permanent playing partnership? Petzschner said: “We’ll see. We get along pretty well, the two of us. I think we could play a while.”

Not only do the pair walk away with their silverware. They also picked up a winning ball each, kissing it before secreting them into their bags. Petzschner said: “I said if we really win the tournament, I take the ball we win the match point with. I take it home with a towel, the shirt, and I will put it on my wall. Then he [Melzer] said, yeah, so what about me? So I said, okay, we take two balls. I gave one to him, one to me.” Somewhere in their homes these trophies will have a certain pride of place.

Courtesy:  wimbledon.org