It had been exactly two years since Dominic Inglot and Robert Lindstedt, who made the 2015 US Open semi-finals and triumphed that year in Winston-Salem, teamed. But the British-Swedish pair showed that their chemistry is still there, defeating top seeds Ben McLachlan and Nicholas Monroe 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 on Sunday to claim victory at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open.
The triumph marks the 400th match-win of Lindstedt’s career, and the 41-year-old has now won 22 tour-level doubles titles. His partner, Inglot, has now won back-to-back titles after coming out victorious last week in Budapest. He now owns nine ATP World Tour trophies.
"I knew starting this year that reaching 400 was a possibility. Maybe I could've done it sooner than I did. But once I knew I could reach 400, it was a big goal for me," Lindstedt said. "It's an amazing feeling. It's something I didn't think was going to happen to be honest when I started playing tennis. Everybody's so good and better than me."
For a moment it appeared the pair might not make the Match Tie-break. Despite earning a 4-0 double-break lead in the second set, McLachlan/Monroe broke twice in a row to get back on serve. But Inglot began to find his range, especially on the forehand return, taking advantage of Monroe’s serve with crosscourt returns to the feet that the American could not handle, recovering the break before closing out the set.
Inglot/Lindstedt trailed just once in the Match Tie-break — at 0/1 — and lost only one point on serve. On their third match point, a heavy serve out wide by Inglot elicited a high, short return that Lindstedt smashed away to clinch the victory. The unseeded duo earns 250 ATP Doubles Rankings points each and a share of €23,090 for their efforts.
"It was great to get some wins because we had a good time playing together when we played regularly," Inglot said. "The fact that we had only got one win was a bit of a shame because I feel like we deserved to have more. We played really well. We came close and it just didn't happen. It's nice to almost go back and relive it in a good way."
It was a strong week despite the loss for McLachlan/Monroe in just their second appearance as a team. The Japanese-American duo leaves Turkey with 150 points each and a split of €12,140.
Did You Know?
In its fourth edition, Inglot and Lindstedt are the first players from Great Britain and Sweden, respectively, to win the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup.