Holland’s Jean-Julien Rojer and the Romanian Horia Tecau were crowned Mutua Madrid Open doubles champions after beating Dominic Thiem and Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-3 after one hour and twelve minutes of play. It is the second title the team formed by Rojer and Tecau have picked up in the Caja Mágica after winning the 2016 edition.

After a bittersweet week for Schwartzman and Thiem in the singles, both players saw this final and the opportunity to lift the winner’s trophy as the best possible way to end this Mutua Madrid Open. While Schwartzman, despite losing in the second round, has taken another step towards rediscovering his form and the game that took him to number 11 in the ATP ranking, Thiem bowed out on the brink of the final after losing to Djokovic in the semis and played stunning tennis throughout the week, beating Roger Federer in the quarters.

However, Schwartzman and Thiem’s hopes in the fourth tournament they have ever played together were dashed by Rojer and Tecau, who specialise in the discipline. After Schwartzman’s serve was broken in the fourth game of the first set (3-1), the Argentinian-Austrian duo failed to win another game on their serve in the rest of the set (6-2).

In the second set it was a similar story to the first. ‘Peque’ lost his serve again in the fourth game (3-1), but this Thiem dug deep to try and take the match to a super tiebreak. The Austrian held his serve and reeled off some delightful winners to earn his team a break and keep their dream alive (4-3).

But Schwartzman had the ball in his hand again and he was yet to hold his serve in the match. This time was no exception. They fought hard, but the Argentine was broken once more after his forehand down the line fell outside the tramlines (5-3). In the next game, ‘El Peque’ and ‘Domi’ made their opponent’s work to cross the finish line, but Tecau’s serve was solid enough to close out the final (6-3).

The result means that Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau succeed Croatia’s Nikola Mektic and the Austrian Alexander Peya, last year’s Mutua Madrid Open men’s doubles champions, to the throne.