Doubles: Ram/Mektic Down ‘The Lorenzos’ + Routliffe Repeats, This Time With Dabrowski

By Richard Osborn

Rajeev Ram (USA)/Nikola Mektic (CRO) def. Lorenzo Musetti (ITA)/Lorenzo Sonego (ITA), 4-6, 6-3 (10-5)

The Lindner Family Tennis Center is all but a home court for Rajeev Ram, who grew up a few hours up the road in Carmel, Ind. Ram, 41, remembers coming here as a wide-eyed 14-year-old for a junior sectional training camp.

Now he’s a two-time Cincinnati Open men’s doubles champion. On Sunday, he and Croat Nikola Mektic outdistanced the Italian pairing of Lorenzo Musetti and Lorenzo Sonego in a thrilling, one-hour and 30-minute final that was decided in a super tiebreak, 4-6, 6-3 (10-5).

Ram adds the title to his 2022 triumph, earned alongside Great Britain’s Joe Salisbury (def. Tim Putz/Michael Venus, 7-6(4), 7-6(5)).

“These are the crown jewels of our sport, just under the majors,” said Ram. “Whenever we can manage to win one, it’s incredible.”

“We’ve known each other a really long time,” said Ram of his first-year partner, with whom he has played only three events. “We’ve played some great matches against each other. It’s so nice to have him on my side of the net. He gave me nightmares for so many years. Now maybe we can change those into some dreams.”

Added Mektic with a laugh, “I’m finally celebrating one of your wins.”

Mektic insists that, although they were facing a pair of elite singles players in Musetti and Sonego, they didn’t change their tactics, their approach coming into the winner-take-all match.

“We had a good conversation before the match to focus on ourselves more than them,” said Mektic, 36. “We just told ourselves, ‘Let’s concentrate on ourselves, and we’ll figure it out during the match if we see some patterns.’”

“It’s tough to speak after such a tough loss. Even if we usually play singles, we really wanted this trophy so bad,” said Musetti, who after a torrid summer stretch reached a career-high No. 6 in the PIF ATP Singles Rankings. “But the most important thing for me was to share the court with Lorenzo, who is probably my best friend on tour.”

Ram has reached the No. 1 ranking in doubles, won two Olympic silver medals, and has a combined six Grand Slam titles to his credit between men’s and mixed doubles. He won the Indiana high school singles championship twice and helped the University of Illinois to the 2003 NCAA title.

Mektic has also reached No. 1 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings, winning men’s doubles titles at Wimbledon in 2021 and the ATP Tour Finals in 2020, as well as a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

[2] Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN)/Erin Routliffe (NZL) def. Hanyu Guo (CHN)/Alexandra Panova, 6-4, 6-3.

The second-seeded duo of Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski, the 2023 US Open and 2024 WTA Tour Finals champions, added to their trophy cases on Sunday night when they defeated Hanyu Guo and Alexandra Panova in the women’s doubles final at the Cincinnati Open, 6-4, 6-3, in one hour and 20 minutes.

It was a second straight tournament title for the New Zealander Routliffe, who also took the trophy last year with American Asia Muhammad (def. Leylah Fernandez/Yulia Putintseva, 3-6, 6-1 (10-4)). The victory was especially meaningful for Dabrowski, too. In April 2024, the Canadian was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“Exactly one year ago, I was going through radiation treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville,” said Dabrowski, 33. “Erin’s best friend, Asia, stepped in and played this tournament. They took the title, which was really fun to watch from afar, but I feel really fortunate to be able to compete here this week.”

Guo/Panova had earlier upset top seeds/Olympic gold medalists Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani of Italy in the semifinals.