Aussie Duo Lead Third Round Doubles Charge

The home nation will be well-represented in the third round of the Australian Open doubles draw, as Sam Groth and Chris Guccione stunned 10th seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi 7-6(10), 7-6(5) on Saturday at Melbourne Park. The unseeded duo, winners of two ATP World Tour titles together, join the Aussie wild card teams of Marc Polmans/Andrew Whittington and Alex Bolt/Bradley Mousley in the Round of 16.

Groth and Guccione needed just under two hours to move on, launching 17 aces, while saving all three break points faced. For Groth, it is the 29 year old’s third straight appearance in the doubles Round of 16 at Melbourne Park, having advanced as far with Eric Butorac in 2015 and Lleyton Hewitt last year. The Aussies will face Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner next, after the Kiwi-Brazilian pair stunned sixth seeds and ATP Finals runners-up Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram 6-1, 7-6(4).

Also advancing to the third round at Melbourne Park were top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. The reigning Wimbledon champions made quick work of Jerzy Janowicz and Marcin Matkowski 6-3, 6-2, setting a date with 16th seeds Dominic Inglot and Florin Mergea. Six-time champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, seeded third, also needed just over an hour to prevail on Saturday. The American twins downed Nenad Zimonjic and Mischa Zverev 6-3, 6-2.

Fifth seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez set an all-Spanish third round clash against US Open finalists Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, defeating Jonathan Eysseric and Fabrice Martin 6-4, 6-4. The Spaniards advanced after 73 minutes, converting three of six break chances.

Rounding out the Round of 16 field were seventh seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, 6-4, 7-6(3) winners over Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak, as well as the Colombian power of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, who rallied past Serbians Dusan Lajovic and Viktor Troicki 2-6, 7-5, 6-0.