The stage is set for Saturday’s US Open men’s doubles final. No. 7 seeds Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson of Australia will face No. 10 seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz of Germany, with both teams battling for their first US Open title.
Louis Armstrong Stadium housed both semifinal matches on Thursday, but they were very different affairs. Purcell and Thompason swept the American No. 13 seeds, Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow, 6-4, 7-6(4) in under an hour and a half, while it took Krawietz and Puetz a third set and almost an extra hour to dispatch No. 4 seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic, 6-3, 6-7(9), 6-4.
Purcell and Thompson were hot from the get-go, a continuation of the form that saw them defeat No. 1 seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos on Tuesday. They immediately broke Lammons and Withrow then holding serve, jumping to a 2-0 lead that the Americans couldn’t close in the first set as the teams traded holds.
In the second, the teams seemed evenly matched, as Lammons and Withrow could grab any ball out of the air and get it across the net, while the Aussies placed several passing shots just out of reach of their opponents.
Once again, Purcell and Thompson got the first break, but this time, Lammons and Withrow refused to allow the Aussies to pull too far ahead. A few games later, they fired off four winners in a row to break back. The set went to a tiebreak, and a shot from the Aussies forced a volley into the net, giving them the edge they needed; they eventually sealed the straight-sets win with an ace. The stats tell the same story, as they had 10 aces, successfully returned 78% of the serves they faced and hit 35 winners, while the Americans managed only one ace and were far less consistent on their returns, only putting 57% back in play.
The Aussies are now into their second straight Grand Slam final, less than two months after they were presented with the finalists’ trophy at Wimbledon. In 2024, they won the titles at Houston, Dallas and Los Cabos.
Krawietz and Puetz took the court in Armstrong next, and both teams held serve until the Germans broke then held to win the first set. The pairs were neck-and-neck in the second set, resulting in a tiebreak that Arevalo and Pavic ended up taking, thanks to a perfectly-angled volley. The final set was more of the same, trading holds until the Spanish-Croatian duo broke then held for a 4-2 lead. However, the German duo was not about to give up on the chance to play their first major final together, and stole the next four games to win the match.
“We just stuck with it,” Puetz said. “[We] could’ve won in the second, should’ve probably lost in the third, and in the end just kind of turned off our heads and tried to keep playing and came back from the dead.”
The Germans are ranked fifth in the team rankings, and successfully defended the Hamburg title earlier this year. While Puetz has never played a Grand Slam final in men's doubles, Krawietz is bidding for his third major trophy after winning the men’s doubles title at Roland Garros in 2019 and 2020.
Although none of the players are strangers to the biggest stages in tennis, both teams were thrilled to advance to the final and have the chance to compete for the title.
“Back to back finals is incredible,” Thompson said. “This is my first full year of doubles and to go [from the] Wimbledon final into a US Open final, hopefully we can go one better here.”
