Bolelli and Vavassori defend Rotterdam with sharp revenge
Three weeks after an Australian Open upset, Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori turned the tables on their conquerors to claim back-to-back ABN AMRO Open titles, blending tactical grit with rising confidence on Rotterdam’s indoor hard courts.
In the tight confines of Rotterdam‘s stadium, where the ball races low under the lights, Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori transformed a fresh scar into fuel. The fourth seeds, still smarting from a second-round loss to Ray Ho and Hendrik Jebens at the Australian Open, faced the same qualifiers in Sunday’s final and struck back decisively, 6-3, 6-4. This win, their eighth together, etched them into history as the first pair to defend an ATP 500 title since Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in 2009-10, a feat that pulsed with the crowd’s building roar.
They arrived carrying that Melbourne weight, where early breaks had unraveled their net approaches. But week by week in Rotterdam, the Italians sharpened their edges, dropping only one set—a semifinal tussle that honed their returns. In the final, they converted all three break points while saving three of four faced, closing out the 67-minute match with volleys that clipped the lines and passes that sliced through defenses.
“Very happy. It’s one of our favourite tournaments of the season. For sure the best indoors, and we love to play in this beautiful stadium,” Vavassori said. “We played a great level all week, improving match by match and we will try to continue this way and go with confidence to Doha and Dubai.”
Revenge sharpens indoor instincts
The ABN AMRO Open‘s swift surface rewarded their adjustments, like deeper 1–2 patterns where Bolelli‘s heavy topspin volleys met Vavassori’s crosscourt lobs to pin opponents back. Ho and Jebens, qualifiers thriving on flat inside-out forehands, pushed early but couldn’t sustain against the Italians’ poaching rushes. This defense under pressure rebuilt their rhythm, turning the indoor hard’s predictability into a weapon as the crowd’s cheers swelled with each hold.
Bolelli’s serve, laced with underspin to the deuce side, kept returns tentative, opening lanes for down-the-line winners that echoed off the rafters. The psychological lift was immediate; after Melbourne’s slip, this straight-sets command restored poise, positioning them for the outdoor shift to Doha where heat will test these tweaks further.
“Really happy with the trophy,” said Bolelli. “Back to back is always nice, we defended the title really good this year and this is our first trophy of 2026. So this is good confidence for us for the rest of the season.”
Brazilians outlast Buenos Aires fire
Halfway across the globe on Buenos Aires’ gripping clay, Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos weathered a partisan storm to snag the IEB+ Argentina Open crown, edging Andrea Collarini and Nicolas Kicker 7-5, 6-3. The Brazilians, supported by a pocket of expatriate fans amid the locals’ fervor, grinded through 92 minutes of baseline wars, saving four of five break points to deny the Argentines a maiden tour-level title. It was endurance over flash, their deep topspin loops forcing errors in the humid rallies that stretched points into marathons.
Collarini and Kicker, chasing the first all-Argentine win here since Maximo Gonzalez and Horacio Zeballos in 2019, surged with home energy but faltered on stretched crosscourts. Luz and Matos countered with inside-in backhands that hugged the lines, disrupting rhythm and tilting momentum in the second set. The crowd’s roars for every Argentine scramble only fueled the visitors’ resolve, turning pressure into a clay-court anchor before harder surfaces beckon.
“We were happy to have a lot of Brazilians here,” Luz said. “They pushed us since the first round…We are very happy that people were cheering for us today.”
“We had to fight a lot during the points and all the matches,“ Matos added. ”It was very tough to play, tough conditions.“
Surfaces test doubles' mental edge
From Rotterdam’s quick closes to Buenos Aires’ drawn-out exchanges, these finals exposed doubles’ core: adapting mind and racket to the court’s demands. Bolelli and Vavassori’s revenge arc, built on net aggression and return depth, injected 500 points and momentum for the Middle East swing, where faster hard courts will probe their consistency. Meanwhile, Luz and Matos’ clay triumph, rooted in rally tolerance, steels them for South America’s red dust, both pairs now carrying trophies that quiet early doubts and sharpen aims for deeper runs ahead.
