Fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo rallied from the brink of defeat on Monday at Wimbledon, fighting back from two sets down to reach the quarter-finals over 14th seeds Florin Mergea and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-7(3), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
Kubot/Melo remain unbeaten on grass this year after prevailing at the Ricoh Open (d. Klaasen/Ram) and Gerry Weber Open (d. Zverev/Zverev). They’ve also picked up ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles this year in Miami (d. Monroe/Sock) and Madrid (d. Mahut/Roger-Vasselin). Next up for them are Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner or British brothers Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski.
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Top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers continued their quest for a first Wimbledon crown by defeating qualifiers Hugo Nys and Antonio Sancic 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Awaiting them in the last eight are Roland Garros champions and 10th seeds Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus, who prevailed in a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3 marathon against sixth seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers.
Sixteenth seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic ended the dream run of British wild cards Marcus Willis and #NextGenATP player Jay Clarke by prevailing 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3). Pavic is through to his first Grand Slam quarter-final and Marach advances to his fifth. The win wasn’t without its painful moments, though...
Next up for Marach/Pavic are Marcin Matkowski and Max Mirnyi, who defeated Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Mirnyi finished runner-up here in 2003 with Mahesh Bhupathi.
The upset of the day goes to Hans Podlipnik-Castillo and Andrei Vasilevski, who reached their first Grand Slam quarter-final by moving past seventh seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3. Podlipnik-Castillo had won only one Grand Slam match prior to this week, while Vasilevski is making his debut at a major.
They’ll take on Croatians Nikola Mektic and Franko Skugor in the next round after the unseeded pair defeated Sam Groth and Robert Lindstedt 6-7(9), 7-6(4), 7-5, 7-5. Both men are into the first Grand Slam quarter-finals and Skugor is also making his Grand Slam debut.
