Luz/Matos seal rare Canada-Cincy double

BRAZILIAN DUO TOPS FRANTZEN/HAASE, 6-4, 3-6, 10-7

By Richard Osborn

Brazilians Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos made some history on Sunday at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, where they became only the fifth tandem in the Open Era to sweep the Canada and Cincinnati men’s doubles titles in the same season.

In defeating the German-Dutch duo of Constantin Frantzen and Robin Haase, 6-4, 3-6, 10-7, they joined Bruce Manson/Brian Teacher (1980), twins Bob and Mike Bryan (2010), Ivan Dodig/Marcelo Melo (2016), and Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut (2017).

“All the time, we were taking energy from each other. We’re good friends. We practice a lot, put in a lot of work,” said Luz, 28.

“It’s the only way to get through tough moments. Everybody feels nervous, but that was the key — getting the energy from each other.”

Having first joined forces back in 2019, the potent pairing has now captured five tour-level doubles titles, four of them alone coming in 2026. Earlier this month, they became the first all-Brazilian team to win an ATP Masters 1000 title in Montreal. Now they’ve pulled off a rare back-to-back.

The tightly-contested battle fittingly came down to a match tiebreak. Luz fell to his knees in tears upon closing out the one-hour, 17-minute match.

“We’re pretty grateful and proud of the work we put in, and after the match point, I just couldn’t stand up anymore,” he said. “Before last week, I had never been beyond the second round of a Masters tournament, so it’s a huge compliment to be back-to-back champions. Being the first 100 percent Brazilian pair to make it, it’s even more special. We just put in more and more work, and now this is the payment for it. We’re just very happy and very proud of not giving up.”