One point away from losing in the men’s doubles semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open, Horacio Zeballos took matters into his own hands.

The Argentine lefty hit a bold second serve down the middle, held firm on his next shot and finished with a zipped volley that gave Simone Bolelli no chance.

Zeballos and partner Marcel Granollers went on to win that second-set tiebreak before prevailing in a match tiebreak against Australian Open semifinalists Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori of Italy. The fifth seeds meet familiar foes in the final, Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and Croatia’s Nikola Mektic, who beat them in the Auckland final in January.

Mektic and Zeballos won the title together in Tennis Paradise in 2019 but are squaring off Friday, no surprise given how frequently players change partners in doubles.

That being said, Granollers and Zeballos have been together for a few years.

Their path to the final started with wins over two teams comprised of primarily singles players, Chris Eubanks and Ben Shelton, and Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Sonego.

Mektic and Koolhof — former No. 1s who joined forces this season — started by ousting Tommy Paul and Steve Johnson in Johnson’s last-ever professional match. Like Granollers and Zeballos, they’ve only lost one set so far.

The 2024 edition of Indian Wells marks Granollers’ best showing in the desert. He’d never gotten past the second round in nine previous visits, although teamed up with Feliciano Lopez to beat Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki in 2012. The match after that, the duo fell against the legendary Bryan brothers in a thriller, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (4), 17-15. 

Back-to-back titles for Rohan Bopanna and Matt Ebden were ruled out straight away since they were upset by Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen in the first round. Koolhof was on the other side of the net in last year’s final, then playing with Neal Skupski.