Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea on Saturday advanced to the summit clash of the men's doubles event at the ATP World Tour Finals, in London, after registering a straight sets victory against Croatian Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo of Brazil.
The eighth seeded Indo-Romanian pair stunned third seeded combination of Dodig and Melo 6-4, 6-2 in a semi-finals contest that lasted 59 minutes at London's O2 Arena.
Bopanna and Mergea, who had finished second in Ashe/Smith Group, dominated from the very beginning of their tie, winning 93 per cent of their first serve points. They also converted on all four break point chances.
They became the first eighth seeds to reach the final at the season finale since Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in 2011.
In the opening set, the Indo-Romanian duo held their serve throughout, while breaking their opponents once to wrap up it up comfortably.
In the second set, Bopanna and Mergea upped the ante even more and managed to break their Croat-Brazilian opponents twice to wrap the set and the match without much hassle.
With this victory, Bopanna and Mergea exacted revenge on the Croat-Brazilian combo following two defeats this year in the quarter-finals in Cincinnati and Paris.
Bopanna and Mergea will take on the winners of the other semi-final match between Bob and Mike Bryan and Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. The winners of the final will finish the year as No. 1 men's doubles team.
Bopanna will be appearing in his second title match at the ATP World Tour Finals, having reached the final alongside compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in 2012.
