Sixth seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah needed only 58 minutes to move into the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals on Thursday, beating Fabio Fognini and Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-3. The Colombian duo will next meet top seeds and defending champions Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo.
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Five-time champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, who turned 40 last month, dismissed Damir Dzumhur/Franko Skugor 6-4, 6-3. The Bryans will next face fifth seeds Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares in the quarter-finals.
The Bryans will be co-No. 1s in the ATP Doubles Rankings if they win the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and Kubot/Melo do not reach the final. The Bryans would become the oldest doubles No. 1s in history. They will be 40 years, 15 days on 14 May. Canadian Daniel Nestor was 40 years, five days on his last day as No. 1 (9 September 2012).
In other action, fourth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut won 85 per cent of their first-serve points (28/33) to beat Spaniards David Marrero/Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 6-4. The Frenchmen will next face Ben McLachlan/Jan-Lennard Struff, who beat seventh seeds Ivan Dodig/Rajeev Ram 6-1, 6-3. Dodig/Ram won their first ATP World Tour title as a team last week at the BMW Open by FWU in Munich.
Two other seeded teams also fell on Thursday: Nikola Mektic/Alexander Peya knocked out third seeds Henri Kontinen/John Peers 6-4, 6-4, and Raven Klaasen/Michael Venus beat eighth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6, 7-6(4), 10-5.