MANILA – Ruben Gonzales of the Philippines and Fernando Romboli of Brazil leveled up from their Tenerife semifinal result last week by emerging as the doubles runners-up of the Bahrain Ministry of Interior Tennis Challenger on Saturday.

The No. 4 seeds lost to the third-seeded tandem of Bart Stevens of the Netherlands and Patrik Niklas-Salminen of Finland, 3-6, 4-6, at the Public Security Officers Club in Manama.

The Filipino-Brazilian duo secured a 3-1 lead until the Dutch and Finn broke serve to catch up at 3-3.

Stevens and Niklas-Salminen clinched another service break on their third opportunity with a forehand volley winner, and they claimed the first set, 6-3, with an ace.

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They maintained their lead in the second set with a love service hold, 4-0, after Gonzales committed a backhand error.

Gonzales and Romboli finally got on the scoreboard by holding serve at 40-30, courtesy of a backhand volley winner from the Philippine Davis Cupper.

The Dutch-Finnish tandem then extended their lead to 5-1 with another love service hold, to which the Filipino and Brazilian responded by winning the next three games to trail at 4-5.

Serving for the match in the 10th game, Stevens and Niklas-Salminen let out a forehand down-the-line winner to earn two match points.

They forced a long backhand from their opponents to bag the title on their first match point, 6-4.

In the semifinals, Gonzales and Romboli caused an upset against No. 1 seeds Roman Jebavy of Czech Republic and Jonny O’Mara of Great Britain, 7-5, 4-6, 10-5.

They saw off Andrea Arnaboldi of Italy and Alexandre Muller of France, 7-6(4), 6-2, in the quarterfinals and edged out the Japanese pair of Toshihide Matsui and Kaito Uesugi, 7-6(3), 6-7(7), 10-6, in the opening round.

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Gonzales, 37, received support from Filipinos throughout the Bahrain Challenger, prompting him to repost an Instagram story of their group photo with the text, “Love my Kababayans!”

The Bahrain tournament, organized by the Public Security Sports Federation, is the third event of Gonzales on the 2023 ATP Challenger Tour.

Prior to the Tenerife Challenger in Spain, Gonzales and Reese Stalder of the United States finished as the runners-up of the Cleveland Open in Ohio.

Gonzales, the ATP Doubles World No. 134, has a total of eight Challenger doubles championships.

The 31st Southeast Asian Games men’s doubles gold medalist achieved a career-best ranking of World No. 122 in August.

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