Mahut/Herbert Up And Running In Rotterdam

Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert began their bid for a second ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament title as a team on Wednesday, beating Benoit Paire and Mate Pavic 6-3, 6-4.

The 2018 champions dropped just four points on serve (40/44) to move through to the quarter-finals after 50 minutes. Mahut and Herbert improve to 7-1 at the opening ATP 500 event of the year, having also reached the semi-finals on their tournament debut as a team in 2017.

Mahut, a three-time champion in Rotterdam, and Herbert will meet Fabio Fognini and Robin Haase as they bid to reach their third semi-final in as many team appearances in Rotterdam. Fognini and Haase edged past Rolex Paris Masters finalists Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev 7-6(1), 7-6(11) on Monday.

In the final first-round match, Raven Klaasen and Oliver Marach will meet Dutch wild cards Sander Arends and David Pel. Klaasen and Marach are searching for their second team victory of the year, following a second-round loss at last month’s Australian Open.