Ajeet Rai (NZL) and Tom Fancutt (AUS) v [3] John Echeverria (ESP) and Tiago Torres (POR)

Fresh off their run to the doubles title in Sharm el-Sheikh a week earlier, Ajeet Rai and Tom Fancutt faced John Echeverria and Tiago Torres in the final in Quinta do Lago on the southern coast of Portugal.  Left-hander Torres served first, but it was Rai who took the opening point with a beautiful inside-out overhead forehand winner.  He added another lovely forehand winner, this one down the left tramline, before a backhand volley into the net from Echeverria conceded a deuce.

There was a great rally on the deciding point, but again it was Rai who came out on top, pulling a fabulous forehand winner into the tramline to get an immediate break of serve.  He won another good short rally with a stunning angled backhand volley before Fancutt aced Echeverria down the centre to hold to love, with the latter returning the compliment on the first point of the next game before going on to get his team on the board.

Rai held comfortably before Torres finished his second game with two outstanding cross-court forehand winners, while Fancutt finished his second game with two unreturnable serves.  He got himself into the highlights package when he hit a terrific cross-court forehand return off Echeverria, who then gave away more break points by hitting a cross-court backhand into the net.

Torres saved the first with a cross-court smash before Fancutt took them to deuce with a backhand volley into the net.  There was another great rally on this deciding point as well, but Fancutt was forced to rebound a backhand volley over the baseline to allow Echeverria to hold.  The only point Rai lost in the next game was when he was forced to hit a cross-court backhand wide to lose a fantastic rally, and that left Torres serving to keep his team in the set.

He and Echeverria hit unforced errors either side of a return error from Rai, and the New Zealander added a beautiful forehand winner down the left tramline to give his team three set points.  Torres saved the first when he won another good rally with a terrific overhead forehand volley into the tramlines, but Rai converted the second when he was able to hit an easy backhand winner down the other side of the court.  The set had taken 32 minutes.

The second set started in fine fashion when Fancutt served, Echeverria taking the first point with a fabulous cross-court backhand winner and Rai the second with a stunning cross-court forehand volley to end a great short rally.  An ace out wide to Torres was followed by a fantastic rally that ended when Rai was forced to hit a forehand volley into the net, but an error from Torres and a winning volley from Rai allowed Fancutt to hold.  Torres held safely as well when Echeverria finished the next game with a lovely angled forehand volley.

Rai aced Echeverria out wide to complete a hold to love, then hit a wonderful forehand lob down the left tramline to create a full set of break points against Echeverria.  He overhit a forehand to lose a rally between the two of them on the next point before Echeverria double faulted to lose the game.  The seeded pair broke straight back against Fancutt, Torres hitting a beautiful forehand volley down the middle of the court before Echeverria finished the game with a fabulous inside-out forehand return that landed pretty much on the sideline.

I had to replay the first shot in Torres’ game several times before I could figure out what had actually happened, but when I realised how it had finished it had to be the shot of the match.  The left-hander hit a wonderful backhand chip down the tramline from about halfway into the service box, but was able (perhaps somewhat luckily) to impart so much backspin that the ball simply died when it hit the ground.

Rai contributed a fabulous forehand return down the singles sidelines before hitting a forehand volley into Echeverria which brought up yet another break point, and Fancutt converted that when he forced Echeverria to hit an inside-out backhand volley wide.  The question now was whether or not Rai could break the sequence of lost serves, and the answer was no, he couldn’t.

Echeverria won the second point with a beautiful cross-court backhand return into the tramlines, with Fancutt then messing up an overhead volley before Rai hit a forehand over the baseline to go to 15-40.  He aced Torres out wide to save the first break point, but Fancutt was forced to hit a backhand volley into the net to lose the second.  It was Echeverria who finally broke the run of losses by holding comfortably next up, but that was only an appetiser for what was the best game in the match.

It started with the best rally in the contest, which ended after 13 shots when Rai was forced to hit a backhand volley into the net, and continued after an error from Rai with four terrific winners in a row.  Torres took the first of those with a beautiful overhead backhand volley, and that gave his team a full complement of break points.  Rai saved the first with a lovely forehand stop volley before he ended a good rally with a gorgeous forehand volley down the right-hand side of the court.

His third successive winner was the best of them, a fabulous backhand volley to get them to deuce, and Fancutt forced Echeverria into a return error to win the deciding point.  Torres then held comfortably before Rai held to love with a fabulous cross-court forehand winner along the way.  Echeverria needed to hold to keep his team in the match, and did so despite Rai saving the second game point with a beautiful inside-out forehand winner into the corner.

The match seemed to be as good as over before they even got to the change of ends in the tie-break, as Torres lost both his points after Rai had won Fancutt’s opener with a simple forehand volley.  Torres tried a forehand lob on his first point, which landed just centimetres over the baseline, and Fancutt took his second with a beautiful forehand winner down the tramlines.

Rai won both his points before Fancutt was forced to hit a forehand into the net at the end of a great rally when Echeverria served, but it was Torres who was forced into an error to end another rally after they had swapped ends.  That gave Rai and Fancutt five Championship points, but they lost the first when Rai ended another great rally by hitting a forehand lob well over the baseline.

A second chance was all that was needed, Torres finding the net with a forehand to end another good rally, and the match was all over after an hour and 29 minutes.  The final score was 6-3, 7-6 (2), and it marked Rai’s 20^th doubles title, all but one of which have come in ITF events.  Five of those have come with Fancutt as his partner, who was lifting his own 33^rd doubles trophy.  Next stop for the pair is Loulé, just 20 minutes down the road.