Arevalo/Rojer Claim Adelaide Title

After winning four tour-level titles in 2022, including the Roland Garros crown, Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer claimed their first trophy of the new season Saturday at the Adelaide International 2.

The El Salvadoran-Dutch duo was set to contest a rematch of that Paris final, in which they saved three championship points to defeat Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek, at the ATP 250. Instead, they received a walkover in the title match as Dodig withdrew with a back injury. The second seeds were also the beneficiaries of a walkover in the semi-finals, when Lloyd Glasspool (partnering Harri Heliovaara) pulled out with a wrist problem.

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"It's very unusual. This has never happened before, I think for either of us, back-to-back walkovers — especially not in the final, in this manner," Rojer said after the trophy ceremony.

"We played a couple of matches, so we'll take those with us into Melbourne for sure, and try to build on that... It's a great start for us to the year."

The Adelaide title is the first ATP Tour triumph in Australia for both men. With a 41-23 record as a team, Arevalo and Rojer are now five-time tour-level champions together. The teammates are level at No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings.

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The pair won its opening match in straight sets against Ramkumar Ramanathan and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela before edging sixth seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-1, 6-7(4), 10-4 in the quarter-finals.

"I think we had a great few matches at the beginning, especially the quarter-final match. It was a great battle," Arevalo added. "We're going to stay with those matches, we're going to take that confidence and that feeling and put it into the Australian Open in a few days.

"I'm pretty happy and motivated to practise for the next couple of days and just get in the best shape possible for the first round of the Australian Open."