El Salvador’s Marcelo Arévalo and Croatian partner Mate Pavić have secured their place in the 2026 ATP Finals for the third consecutive year, although their preparations suffered a setback Wednesday when they lost their opening doubles match at the Vienna Open. The third-seeded pair fell 7-6 (8), 7-5 to Argentina’s Francisco Cerúndolo and Tomás Martín Etcheverry in a match lasting two hours and 27 minutes.
The result came just two days after the ATP confirmed that Arévalo and Pavić had earned one of the eight doubles spots at the season-ending championship in Turin, Italy.Despite the Vienna defeat, the qualification marks another successful season for the Salvadoran, who has established himself among the leading doubles players in professional tennis.
Arévalo and Pavić had recorded 39 tour-level victories together when their qualification was announced Monday. Their best result of the season came in June at Queen’s Club in London, where they defeated Finland’s Harri Heliövaara and Britain’s Henry Patten to capture their first title of 2026.
The pair also reached the Wimbledon doubles final in July but lost to Heliövaara and Patten in two tiebreaks. Additional runner-up finishes in Montreal, Monte-Carlo and Dubai helped them accumulate enough ranking points to qualify for Turin before the final tournaments of the regular season.
Wednesday’s result in Vienna was a notable upset. Cerúndolo and Etcheverry, better known for their singles careers, recovered from first-round singles defeats earlier in the week to eliminate one of the established doubles teams on the ATP Tour.The Argentines held their nerve in a closely contested opening set, winning the tiebreak 10-8 before securing the decisive break of serve in the second set.
For Arévalo, the larger objective remains the ATP Finals, where he and Pavić will attempt to improve on their runner-up finish in 2024. That year, the pair reached the championship match before losing to Germany’s Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz. They returned in 2025 but failed to advance beyond the group stage.
The Salvadoran and Croatian have been partners since the beginning of 2024. They won the French Open doubles championship that year and finished the season as the world’s top-ranked doubles team. Their return to Turin also extends Arévalo’s presence at the highest level of the sport, giving Central America another representative at one of professional tennis’s most exclusive events.
The 2026 ATP Finals will take place November 15–22 at the Inalpi Arena in Turin, bringing together the eight leading singles players and eight leading doubles teams based on their results throughout the season. With their qualification secured, Arévalo and Pavić can focus on preparing for another opportunity to win a season-ending championship that has so far eluded them.
