Second seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares came out on top in another tight match on Friday at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, reaching the final with a 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-6 victory over Marcin Matkowski and Max Mirnyi. Murray/Soares needed 11 match points to prevail in their quarter-final on Wednesday against Brian Baker and Nikola Mektic, but only needed three in the Match Tie-break against Matkowski/Mirnyi to advance in 77 minutes. Awaiting them in the final will be top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan or fourth seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic. Murray/Soares are 1-1 in ATP World Tour doubles finals in 2017, prevailing in Acapulco (d. Isner/Lopez) and finishing runner-up in Sydney (l. Koolhof/Middelkoop). [ALSO LIKE] At the...
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan stepped up their bid for a 13th grass-court trophy on Thursday when they reached the Mercedes Cup semi-finals. The American twins, winners of a record 112 team titles, recovered from a set and 2-3 deficit to knock out Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-6 in 77 minutes. From a 2-3 deficit in the second set, they won four straight games. The Bryans, who last captured a trophy in May 2016 at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (d. Pospisil/Sock), will next challenge fourth seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic in the Stuttgart semi-finals. At the Ricoh Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, top seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo improved to 21-9 on the season, which...
Second seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares fought off a potentially miraculous comeback from Brian Baker and Nikola Mektic on Wednesday at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, converting on their 11th match point to reach the semi-finals 6-4, 6-7(8), 10-8. Baker/Mektic fought off a match point in the second at 4-5, three more at 5-6 and rallied from 3/6 down in the tie-break. They survived an eighth match point at 6/7 before converting on their second set point at 9/8 to even the score. But Murray/Soares refused to fold, racing to a 9/6 lead in the Match Tie-break. Two more match points came and went before the second seeds finally wrapped up the contest in one hour and 39 minutes....
Brian Baker of the U.S. and Nikola Mektic of Croatia kicked off their grass-court season with success on Tuesday, beating Frenchmen Lucas Pouille and Gilles Simon 7-5, 6-3 to move into the quarter-finals of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart. Baker and Mektic, champions on the indoor hard courts in Memphis and the outdoor clay courts of Budapest already this season, won 82 per cent of their first-serve points to advance in 64 minutes. [ALSO LIKE] They will next face second seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, who advanced by walkover. Treat Huey and Robert Lindstedt had to withdraw because of a back problem for Huey, and no alternate doubles team was available to take their place. In other doubles action,...
German wild cards Tommy Haas and Florian Mayer upset third seeds Florin Mergea of Romania and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan 7-6(5), 2-6, 10-7 on Monday at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart.
Haas, 39, and Mayer, 33, saved four of seven break points and will next meet Marcin Matkowski of Poland and Max Mirnyi of Belarus. Matkowski/Mirnyi beat Spaniard David Marrero and Frenchman Benoit Paire 4-6, 6-3, 10-4.
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