Top seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo stayed unbeaten on the grass on Wednesday in Halle, moving into the Gerry Weber Open quarter-finals with a 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 victory against Japan's Kei Nishikori and Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Kubot/Melo, champions at the Ricoh Open in s'-Hertogenbosch on Sunday, won 83 per cent of their first-serve points to advance in 83 minutes. They will next play Spaniards Roberto Bautista Agut and David Ferrer.
Third seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau dismissed home favourites Dustin Brown and Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(3), 6-4. Germans Alexander Zverev and Mischa Zverev became the first doubles team to reach the semi-finals when Brian Baker and Alexander Peya retired down 2-3 in the first set. Baker was suffering from a right shoulder injury.
The Zverevs' countrymen, German qualifiers Andre Begemann and Tim Puetz, dismissed the French team of Richard Gasquet and Lucas Pouille 6-3, 6-4. Begemann/Puetz dropped only two first-serve points (27/29) and saved all three break points. They will next face second seeds and two-time defending champions Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram.
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LONDON DOUBLES
At the Aegon Championships, Roland Garros champions Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus started their London campaign with a 6-2, 6-4 win against Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez (no relation). They will next play third seeds Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares, who also advanced in straight sets, beating Gilles Muller and Sam Querrey 7-6(4), 6-1.
Croatian Marin Cilic and Poland's Marcin Matkowski saved four match points in the Match Tie-break to knock out the lucky loser team from the U.S., Nicholas Monroe and Donald Young, 7-5, 4-6, 12-10.
The top seeds were not as fortunate in their Match Tie-break. Henri Kontinen and John Peers fell in the quarter-finals at The Queen's Club to Indian Rohan Bopanna and Croatian Ivan Dodig 7-6(2), 4-6, 10-2.