Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez became the first Spanish pair to win the doubles title at the ATP Tour Finals for 37 years on Monday with a narrow victory over Indian duo Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna.
The Barcelona natives, the first Spaniards to qualify for the season-ender since Emilio Sanchez and Sergio Casal in 1994, held their nerve to win a third set championship tiebreak 10-3 after the first two sets were split 7-5, 3-6.
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The only other Spanish duo to win the title were Juan Gisbert and Manuel Orantes in 1975 in Stockholm when the title was decided by a round-robin group.
Granollers and Lopez, who beat world No 1 pairing Bob and Mike Bryan in group play last Monday, will be part of Spain's Davis Cup final team against the Czech Republic later this week.
In the semi-finals, Bhupathi-Bopanna saved a match-point to beat Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek. In the process, the fifth seeds halted the winning run of the Indo-Czech combination with a 4-6, 6-1, 12-10 win and avenged the defeat of the Shanghai Masters final last month.
It was Bhupathi's 12th appearance at the finale, having ended runners-up four-times (three times partnering Paes) previously.
With Paes he finished runners-up in 1997, 1999 and 2000, while in 2010 he was second-best again, with Max Mirnyi.
Like Bhupathi, Paes is 0-4 in title matches at the season-ending championships.
Image: Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez of Spain pose with the trophy next to India's Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi.
Photograph: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images
