Marcel Granollers & Horacio Zeballos Interview at the Miami Open

Horacio Zeballos and Marcel Granollers are one of the most accomplished doubles pairings of the last five years on the ATP Tour. I spoke with them in Miami after their second-round win.

We discussed their 7-5 6-3 win which Horacio said was one of their "best matches this year." They faced two players whom they've faced many times, Mate Pavić and Marcelo Arévalo. We talk about how they handle facing players who they know so well and who know them, as well as the windy conditions.

I also asked them if they believe their consistent partnership helps early in the season when other teams are often new. At the end, Horacio and Marcel open up about what changes might help doubles become more popular.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 1:15

Horacio Zubayos and Marcel Granollers are number five and six in the world on the ATP doubles tour and I caught up with them in Miami. This is going to be the last post-match interview from Miami. It's a very short one that I wanted to get to you this weekend before next week. So I chatted with them after their second round win. It was a very windy match. They played Matej Povic and Marcelo Arevalo and we talked about the matchup as well as what they do when they're facing a team that they've seen or they've at least seen those individual players so often over the last several years, and they talk a little bit about what sorts of adjustments they're still making even though they've faced each other so many times. Horatio says that it was one of the best matches they've played this year.

Speaker 1 2:15

After that, we talk about playing in the windy conditions a bit, and then we talk about early in the season Is it an advantage that they've played together for so long when there are these other teams like Arevalo and Pavic who are still kind of finding their footing together and they haven't played together before this season? And then at the end, of course, we talk about how to make doubles more popular as well. So, again, this is a very short conversation, but I wanted to get it out to y'all and next week I'm going to have a new podcast, or at least on the next episode I'm going to have a new podcast that will be a solo episode, about some recent doubles lessons that I've learned coaching our high school tennis team. So, without further delay, enjoy this short conversation with Marcel Granollers and Horatio Zabaios. All right, so nice one. Earlier guys, what did y'all make of kind of the match overall?

Speaker 2 3:16

About the match yeah, I think we played a great match. The conditions were not easy today it was very windy but I feel that we played one of the best matches this year. It was against a very tough team, so we knew that we had to take every opportunity that we had and I think that was a key, being very focused the whole match.

Speaker 1 3:37

Are there any adjustments you make in the wind? Specifically, I noticed y'all were hitting a good amount of lobs and obviously if the wind's going one direction, it's different on each side. So how do you kind of handle the windy conditions?

Speaker 3 3:51

Well, you have to adjust when it's very windy, but I think we mix very well today with lobs or returning hard and, yeah, obviously it's's important to hold serve, but I think we really returned very good today.

Speaker 1 4:07

How do you go about game planning against a team or players that you've seen so often? You've obviously played Mate and Marcelo a number of times at this point. Do you kind of have your game plan kind of set and then just make adjustments from match to match, or are you looking at a lot of their recent matches to see, kind of, if they've made any adjustments? Talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 2 4:31

Everything that you said is what we try to do, right, we see a lot of matches, especially the last matches that they played, so maybe they are doing something new or not. You said we play many times against them, so and they play against us, of course, and they know our, our weapons and we know what they like to do, but there is always something new that we can, everybody can do. So we try to to see the last matches that they play to, to see if there is something like like I told you, and and then of we need to focus on them, but we need to focus on us trying to do our best shots every time that we need it, and I think that's the key.

Speaker 1 5:09

So you'll have three finals so far this year. Obviously, you'll have played together for a long time. Do you feel like that is an advantage early on in the season, since there's so many new teams that are kind of trying to find their way and build that team chemistry?

Speaker 3 5:26

Well, for us it's good that we are already playing for five years. Yeah, I think this helps us. We know each other on court, we know what we do good. And yeah, for the other teams maybe sometimes take time to adjust the game together. Other teams like really fast they connect, like us. The first time we played together we won a master 1000, so you never know how long it takes. But yeah, for us now it's good that we are playing for a long time.

Speaker 1 6:06

So the last question how can we make doubles more popular?

Speaker 2 6:12

That's a good question. I mean, for sure it helps that many singles players are playing right now. For sure it helps that many singers are playing right now. Maybe, I mean we have a few ideas like trying to implement I don't know more music, something with the fans, but it's tough, it's tough. I mean there are some countries that we know that they like more doubles, like the US, like in England, in Australia. So I don't think they need something new about those countries because they really like the doubles. But then I know we are trying to get more ideas. So I don't know, hopefully we can do something, because it's a very nice sport.

Speaker 1 6:57

Any comments.

Speaker 3 6:59

I don't know. I know a lot of people are talking about how to get the fans more involved in doubles. We are talking about that and we'll see.

Speaker 1 7:10

Would you all be open to allowing fans to kind of come in and out during games, or does that bother you on the serve too much? About what Like to allow fans to come in and out and not wait for a changeover, I don't know Any ideas.

Speaker 3 7:24

If it works, I don't know.

Speaker 2 7:28

We are open, I mean we are open to try a few new things. If that helps doubles in the future, yeah, of course, sure.

Speaker 1 7:35

Awesome. Thanks guys, Thank you.