Kiwi doubles star Marcus Daniell has won his fifth ATP doubles title and first with Austrian partner Philipp Oswald, after the pair secured victory in Sardinia.
Daniell and Oswald turned in a superb performance to beat top-seeded Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-3 6-4 in the final of the inaugural Tour event played on the Mediterranean island.
Daniell had notched up wins over fellow Kiwis Michael Venus and Artem Sitak in the semi-finals and quarter-finals respectively and the tournament win will see the 30-year-old climb the world rankings.
"I really think this is a big step on the road for Oz and me as a team," says Daniell. "We have beaten some of the best teams in the world in the past.
"But to win our first title and beat two of the top teams in the world back-to-back in the semi-finals and finals is a real statement."
"We have had a pretty tough month. We lost matches early in tournaments since we moved on to clay.
"But we have put the work in and thought good things would happen, and today, we played top-level tennis.
"In the end, it looked comfortable on the scoreboard, but there was a sudden-death deuce point at 5-4 in the second set, and if they had broken back, it could have gone the other way."
Daniell and Oswald now head to Germany, where they'll face Daniel Altmaier and Oscar Otte in the first round of the Cologne Open.
