Ruben Gonzales and American Hunter Johnson survived their unseeded rivals to capture the Trofeul Tiriac-Nastase Challenger in Bucharest, Romania over the weekend.
The third-seeded Gonzales and Johnson rose from a slow start before edging Germany’s Maximilian Marterer and Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol, 1-6, 6-2, 10-3, for their first title this year.
Gonzales and Johnson only dropped two sets throughout the 44,000 euro tournament. The Filipino-American pair opened their campaign with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Romanian wildcard bets Nicholas David Ionel and Filip Cristian Jianu, then followed up with a quarterfinal win over Moldovans Radu Albot and Alexander Cozbinov, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 10-6.
They swept hometown bets Alexandru Jecan and Dan Alexandru Tomescu, 6-4, 7-6 (4), to reach the final.
Gonzales and Johnson came close to winning titles in Istanbul, Turkey and Kyiv, Ukraine, but managed only to make it to the semifinals.