Herbert/Mahut Chasing History In Madrid
Herbert/Mahut Chasing History In Madrid
Mahut also within striking distance of No. 1 ranking
Top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut defeated Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 7-6(4) in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday. The Frenchmen improved to 15-1 in 2016 and have not lost since the quarter-finals of Brisbane in January.
Since then, Herbert/Mahut have swept the first three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events of the year – the BNP Paribas Open (d. Pospisil/Sock), the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Klaasen/Ram) and the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (d. Murray/Soares).
No doubles team has won the first four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in the same year, and standing in the way of the Frenchmen will be Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, who were one match away from accomplishing the feat in 2014 before losing the Madrid final to Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic.
The Americans set up a tantalising quarter-final matchup with Herbert/Mahut by edging in-form Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski 7-5, 2-6, 10-8 in the second round. The Polish duo made the final of Estoril last week (l. to Butorac/Lipsky) and landed 80 per cent of first serves against the Bryans, but succumbed in 81 minutes.
Second seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares fell to Henri Kontinen and John Peers 6-4, 7-6(4). Kontinen/Peers were unbreakable in the second-round match, firing six aces and winning 91 per cent of first serve points.
Murray’s loss ensures that there will be a change at No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings on Monday. There are three players in contention to take top spot: Former No. 1 Marcelo Melo, Mahut and Romanian Horia Tecau, who teamed up with Jean-Julien Rojer to beat Thomaz Bellucci and Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-4.
Melo is guaranteed to reclaim top spot from Murray, who displaced the Brazilian almost five weeks ago, if he reaches at least the semi-finals and Mahut does not advance one round farther than Melo. Melo will also move to No. 1 if Tecau does not win the title and Mahut loses in the quarter-finals. Mahut will go to No. 1 if he wins one more match than Melo. Tecau can only reach No. 1 if he wins the title and both Melo and Mahut fall in the quarter-finals.