Rochester’s Eric Butorac in Aussie Final

Rochester John Marshall grad and Gustavus Adolphus College alumnus Eric Butorac will play in the finals of the men’s doubles tournament at the Australian Open in Melbourne. The Australian Open is the first of four major tournaments on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) calendar.

Butorac and his doubles partner Raven Klaasen of South Africa surprised everyone as this is their first major tournament together, having paired up this past October.  They advanced to the finals with a straight set victory over the No. 8 seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic on Thursday afternoon (Wednesday evening in theUnited States).

Butorac and Klaasen had to go three sets (6-7, 7-6, 6-4) to win their quarterfinal match against the No. 12 seeded tandem of Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot on Tuesday afternoon (Monday evening in the United States).

The victory over Huey and Inglot came a day after Butorac secured the biggest upset victory of his professional career when he and Klaasen took out the No. 1 seeds, Bob and Mike Bryan, in straight sets 7-6, 6-4. TheBryanbrothers were not only the defending Australian Open men’s doubles champions, but the most successful doubles team in the Open era with 15 grand slam titles, including six at the Australian Open.

Butorac and Klaasen will face the No. 14 seeded pair of Lukasz Kubot and Robert Lindstedt in the men’s doubles final. The match will be at 4:30 local time Saturday morning.

This will be the first Grand Slam final for Butorac in his 11-year professional career.

Butorac, a native of Rochester, has been ranked as high as No. 17 in the world in men’s doubles. His current ranking of No. 48 is sure to improve when the latest rankings are released following the conclusion of the Australian Open. Butorac has 14 ATP doubles titles to his name with seven different partners.

You can follow Butorac’s progress at the Australian Open online at australianopen.com.

(Rich Peterson and Gustavus Media Relations)