Granollers Brothers: carving out wins at the Segovia Challenger

Marcel and Gerard Granollers see success this year at the Segovia Open in Spain. While they didn’t come away with the title, they proved themselves yet again.

Sometimes it’s not all about winning titles, but just the fact that you’ve won matches and accomplished what’s necessary to make you feel confident moving forward.

Marcel is the older brother by two years and learned the sport at 5-years-old as his younger brother, Gerard looked on soon to take pride in a skill that both found to be fun. There also was another brother, Raul who was older than both who hsa a passion for tennis. He chose to concentrate on being a tennis coach and worked with the Catalan Tennis Federation in Spain.

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It was difficult to believe that years later, Marcel and Gerard would come together and play singles and doubles at the same tournament as they did at this year’s Segovia Open.

It was Marcel who first started playing Futures and Challenger events and by 2003 turned pro. He worked hard to develop his craft and by 2006 won the Naples and Rome Doubles Challengers with Flavio Cipolla.

He had met Marc Lopez, a beginning pro to partner with. They scored the Maspalomas Challenger Doubles title together. Meanwhile, his younger brother Gerard had been learning the techniques of tennis and developed his own passions.

Gerard decided to turn pro in 2007 and hit the Futures and Challenger circuit along with his brother.

He is a doubles specialist compared to Marcel who plays both singles and doubles. The younger Granollers won a Spain Futures doubles title with David Diaz-Ventura and the following year in 2008, won 4 Futures Doubles titles all in Spain. But when he was in full swing with playing a successful Futures tour, he saw his elder brother dig his racket deep into the ATP World Tour and win his first singles title at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston. He was also a runner-up at the same tournament in doubles with Pablo Cuevas.

The following year in 2009, Marcel won the Brasil Open in doubles with his countryman Tommy Robredo, and the Buenos Aires Open doubles in Argentina with another Spaniard, Alberto Martin. But it was in 2009 that Gerard branched off in many ways and earned doubles titles not only in Spain but in Romania and Bulgaria too. He also paired with his older brother for the first time and won their first Futures Doubles title together. The following year they would win the Pozoblanco Cordoba Challenger title. Gerard continued to perfect his singles game and won 6 Futures singles titles.

While the higher ranked playing brother won a few singles titles, the Swiss Open and the Valencia Open, he also won doubles in the Auckland Open and a few runner up titles in Germany, Mexico, Barcelona. He also happened to win the Italian Open, Swiss and many titles out in Japan, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, when all this was evolving with Marcel, the younger brother didn’t find it so easy to play and win in singles as his brother.

Gerard was having difficulty at times to remain consistent in singles and doubles, but was glad to get the chance this year when he received a wildcard for the Segovia Challenger event, being able to not only be in the same tournament but to team up with his brother in doubles again after ten years.

Gerard entered into singles also and was fortunate enough to win his first round, defeating Luca Vanni, and the second round struggling with the Swiss Marco Chiudinelli, but coming through with a win after three sets. He, the least experienced, was able to move up to the semifinals in singles where he fell to Jaume Munar while his older brother fell in the quarterfinals to the same opponent. The Granollers brothers combined their talents to make it through to the semifinals of the Segovia Open falling to the Spanish doubles team of Roberto Ortega-Olmedo and David Vega Hernandez.

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It was an excellent run for the Granollers brothers as they separately continue their trek towards elevating their rankings and successes in the ATP tour. They know now what they can accomplish together and sometime in the near future might be a successful doubles team again.

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