Six years ago Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos said \u2018I do\u2019 and their doubles career was born. The union could not have got off to a better start, winning a title on their first outing together. Since then, the Spanish-Argentine duo have not spent a moment apart, besides the odd tournament when one of them was injured.<\/p>\n
On Saturday in the Caja Magica, they claimed their eighth Masters 1000 title together. An astonishing haul. On their way to glory in the Spanish capital, they left the world\u2019s three best teams in their wake. In addition, Marcel is now the active player with the most Masters 1000 titles alongside Mektic.<\/p>\n
In an era when immediacy rules all, they have been together for longer than any of the best teams in the world. Such long partnerships are unusual because it is not at all easy, as they themselves acknowledged: \u201cOver these six years we\u2019ve had many great moments together, but the reality is that there are more bad moments than positives and that\u2019s when we\u2019re an even better partnership\u201d, said the Spaniard.<\/p>\n
This very year Marcel suffered an injury that kept him sidelined for three months: \u201cIn doubles when you get injured it\u2019s also frustrating for your partner. Luckily I\u2019ve barely had any serious ones, but I\u2019m really grateful for the support he gave me from day one when I got the injury in December. It\u2019s a joy to have Horacio by my side\u201d, explained the Catalonian.<\/p>\n
Horacio, 40, and Marcel, 39, are well aware that they are reaching the final stages of their careers. But they also know they would like to spend them together. The Argentinian is in no doubt: \u201cYou never know, but at this point I can\u2019t see myself playing with anyone other than Marcel. We\u2019re very similar, we have similar routines and we get on really well. I think he will be my last partner\u201d. Granollers is just as confident: \u201cIt would be difficult for me to find someone like Horacio, he understands me perfectly and we have a great rapport both on and off the court\u201d.<\/p>\n
In order to keep the flame alive, there is only one word, commitment: \u201cIt\u2019s all about attitude. The motivation every day is what allows us to have moments like these. This year we played Challenger events because we had to and we didn\u2019t mind. Everything is about attitude. There\u2019s no time to be bitter and we know that well\u201d. They are ambitious about their future together, but they also know that the competition is fierce and all they can do is work hard. \u201cThe goal is to win, but otherwise to keep our heads held high, train hard and enjoy the journey\u201d.<\/p>\n
Both players are incredibly grateful for their week in the Spanish capital: \u201cThe support we\u2019ve been given this week in Madrid has been amazing\u201d, said the Argentine. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible to win here again\u201d, added Marcel. Two titles at the Mutua Madrid Open and the world number one spot last year. The Caja Magica is starting to become the favourite stomping ground of the Granollers-Zeballos marriage.<\/p>\n
However, if they had to sum up their feelings with one word, it would be \u2018relief\u2019: \u201cWhen we had won, maybe we didn\u2019t celebrate it much, but we just felt huge relief. It\u2019s been a tough year with the injury. It\u2019s incredible how quickly things can change. Ten days ago we had a bad match in Munich and we\u2019ve managed to bounce back and win here.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we work so hard for\u201d, said the Mar del Plata native. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health; these appear to be the rules Granollers and Zeballos abide by every day of their tennis lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Six years ago Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos said \u2018I do\u2019 and their doubles career was born. The union could not have got off to a better start, winning a title on their first outing together. Since then, the Spanish-Argentine duo have not spent a moment apart, besides the odd tournament when one of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":102847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[838,824,837],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-tenis-masculino-en","category-noticias-mutua-en","category-noticias-tenis-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102910,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102908\/revisions\/102910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}