Kontinen/Peers Off To Strong Start In Brisbane

Top-seeded Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, who both competed at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November last year, saved one match point chance to scrape past Thomaz Bellucci and Steve Johnson 6-4, 3-6, 13-11 on Monday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. Herbert and Mahut led 9/6 in the Match tie-break, before Bellucci and Johnson won four straight points to held a match point opportunity at 10/9.

Second seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers denied Daniel Nestor his 1,000th doubles match win. Kontinen and Peers beat Nestor and Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-3, while third seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski overcame Jonathan Marray and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-3, 6-4.

At the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, Teymuraz Gabashvili and Albert Ramos-Vinolas converted their second match point opportunity to defeat Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco 7-6(4), 4-6, 11-9 in one hour and 45 minutes. Nadal won the Doha doubles title with Albert Costa in 2005, Marc Lopez in 2009 and 2011 and Juan Monaco last year.