Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez were the first team to book their place in the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters final with a 6-1, 7-6(4) victory over Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.
Lopez/Lopez run away with the first set
The first two service games were held by Herbert and Feliciano Lopez. However, it was the Spanish team who had settled much quicker in the match and sent the third game to a deciding point, which also was a breakpoint. With the French team camped at the net, Lopez hit a forehand between them and Herbert netted as they fell behind a break, 2-1.
The pair consolidated the break rather too easy only losing one point in the process. Things started getting much better for the seventh seeds, who were dominating the match. Up love-30, Marc Lopez fired a forehand to Herbert to which he got a touch and four more breakpoint chances came around.
The 26-year-old then netted a return which gave the Spaniards a comfortable 4-1 lead. Once again, they held serve, losing one point, consolidating to go 5-1 up.The number two seeded French pair were struggling to deal with the Spaniards and serving to stay in the match, they fell behind three set points with Herbert sending a volley long after constant pressure from Marc Lopez.
The Frenchmen could only save one of the set points as Lopez/Lopez grabbed the first set 6-1 in 22 minutes following an unforced error from Mahut.
Herbert/Mahut put up fight, fall in tiebreaker
With the first set in the bag, the Spaniards started the second set in the same vein despite the Frenchmen's improvement. Three of the four players, this time held their serve but it was Herbert, the weaker of the players on the court who fell apart serving up a double fault as well as hitting a few unforced errors to give the Spanish pairing triple break points at 15-40.
First time of asking the pair broke with Marc Lopez lobbing Herbert to go 4-1 up. Only down a break, the French duo kept themselves in the contest by holding their serve and began growing in confidence with the Spanish pair unrelenting for most of the set. But now serving for the match at 5-4, The number two seeds found an opening and three break back points were on offer after Feliciano Lopez sent a volley long following pressure at the net.
Feliciano Lopez saved the first break back point with a solid unreturnable serve, 30-40. Herbert got the Fench duo back on track as he hit a volley winner before Mahut held serve to draw level at 5-5. From that moment onwards, both teams held their next service games to send the match to a tiebreaker.
Lopez/Lopez began the tiebreaker by getting the mini-break in the second game until the sixth game when the French drew level. The next three games also went with the server until the Spaniards broke the Mahut serve in the 11th game to go up two match points at 6-4 when Feliciano Lopez struck an aggressive volley towards Herbert who netted. They only needed one attempt to put away match point and advance to the final.