Lammons/Withrow Claim First ATP Tour Title In Dan Diego

Second seeds Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow made the most of their home advantage this week at the San Diego Open to claim their first ATP Tour title as a team.

The Americans — Lammons from Texas and Withrow from Nebraska — earned a 7-6(5), 6-2 victory against Australians Jason Kubler and Luke Saville in Sunday's final at the ATP 250. The pair made a slow start in its first title match as a team, dropping serve in the opening game. But the champions did not face another break point as they improved throughout the contest.

"Nate and I have teamed up a little bit last year and rolled into this year," Withrow said post-match.

"[We're] looking for this to kind of be a steady partnership that we can continue to grow and continue to get better. We feel like, after we've had some hard talks over the summer, we're on the right path and ready to continue the rest of the year and hopefully end on a high note."

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Putting the pressure on late in the first set, the Americans levelled at 4-4, then saw two set points go begging on return at 6-5. The second seeds never trailed in the tie-break after opening up a 4/1 lead and continued their momentum with an instant break in the second set.

Lammons/Withrow dropped just four points on serve in the second set, and won more than 75 per cent of points on both first and second serve overall.

"We had some good results last year and some good ones this year," added Lammons. "We're kind of headed in the right direction. The focus changes where it needs to and I think we're working on the right stuff and we're really happy with what we're doing."

The pair improved to 13-19 at tour-level, with its best previous results coming in semi-final runs in Montpellier and Marseille in 2021. The duo stretched its winning streak to eight matches, dating back to its ATP Challenger Tour title in Cary last week — the team's fifth Challenger title together.

The San Diego title is Lammons' first at tour-level and Withrow's second after a 2018 triumph with Jack Sock in Delray Beach. They dropped just one set in four matches on the week, winning a Match Tie-break against Bradley Klahn and Fernando Verdasco in the semi-finals.

The pair moved up 25 places this week to 35th in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Teams Rankings.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/0yxEZVo