There’s no doubt that the Caja Magica is the most special venue in Marcel Granollers’ career. The Spaniard won the Davis Cup there in 2019; in 2021 he won the Mutua Madrid Open doubles title; in 2024 he reached the top of the ATP Rankings for the first time after a win in the Spanish capital; and now, in 2025, he may be crowned champion of the Masters 1000 once again.

Granollers and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos beat the German duo of Tim Pütz and Kevin Krawietz 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 in a scintillating clash in the Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario Stadium, which was packed with Spanish fans who had turned out to watch the men’s doubles semifinal.

It was an incredibly tight match. The German pair, world number three in doubles, had two set points in the first-set tiebreak, but Granollers and Zeballos dug deep and managed to rescue themselves.

The first break of the match came in the middle of set two, when the Spanish-Argentine outfit broke to take a 4-3 lead that looked like it would be decisive. But Pütz and Krawietz were not quite ready to lay down their arms. When they were returning to save the match, they claimed their first break.

“Those moments are difficult mentally, because you are so close and you don’t manage to close it out. They’re tough moments”, Granollers told the media in the mixed zone afterwards. “But we stayed strong mentally and played spectacularly to reach 7-5”.

“We’re really happy, we had a great match. It was very demanding mentally. None of the four of us were making mistakes and we’re very happy to have held on”, added Marcel in the Caja Magica. “Both Horacio and I felt great, we were dictating throughout, we really helped ourselves in the tough moments. We’re really happy about the way we’re competing”.

Having knocked out the number-two pair in the quarters and the number threes in the semis, Granollers and Zeballos will meet the number-one duo in Saturday’s final: El Salvador’s Marcelo Arévalo and the Croatian Mate Pavic, who beat American duo Christian Harrison and Evan King on Friday.

However, Granollers and Zeballos know they will be the crowd favourites. “After today’s match, we were in the gym, on the bike, and we were saying how amazing it is to play here. Going out on court, people support us so much. We really feel that love. Last year we left here as the number ones and we feel that energy every time we play”, said a Granollers who, at 39 years of age, is showing no signs of slowing down.