Cabal/Melo Cruise Into Rio Doubles SFs

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Marcelo Melo dominated the Argentine team of Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Diego Schwartzman on Thursday at the Rio Open presented by Claro. The second seeds earned a 6-1, 6-2 win in the all-South American quarter-final, not allowing a break point in the match.

Home favourite Melo is lone Brazilian remaining in the singles or doubles draw at the ATP 500.

The Colombian-Brazilian duo will meet Frenchmen Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul in the semi-finals after their 7-5, 6-4 win against Americans Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow.

Fourth seeds Francisco Cabral and Horacio Zeballos also advanced to the last four with a 6-4, 7-6(4) win against Gonzalo Escobar and Tomislav Brkic.

Marseille Success For Home Favourites
Three Frenchmen are through to the semi-finals at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille after Thursday wins.

Second seeds Nicolas Mahut and Fabrice Martin progressed with a 6-3, 6-4 result against Jonathan Eysseric and Denys Molchanov, while Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Mexican Santiago Gonzalez — the top seeds at the ATP 250 — scored a 6-2, 6-4 victory against Luca Sanchez and Petros Tsitsipas. Neither team has lost a set in their two Marseille matches.

Mahut/Martin will face N.Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan after their 3-6, 7-6(4), 13-11 win against Dustin Brown and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. After leading 9/6 in the Match Tie-break, the Indian duo erased a match point at 10/11 before clinching victory on their fifth chance.

Gonazlez/Roger-Vasselin will meet Romain Arneodo and Sam Weissborn, who received a walkover in the quarters.

Doha Final Set
Third seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden will meet Constant Lestienne and Botic van de Zandschulp in the Qatar ExxonMobil Open final after both teams advanced on Thursday at the ATP 250.

Bopanna/Ebden were 6-4, 6-3 winners against Britons Daniel Evans Jonny O’Mara, while Lestinne/van de Zandschulp edged the Finnish pair of Patrik Niklas-Salminen and Emil Ruusuvuori 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 by winning the final two points of a neck-and-neck Match Tie-break.

The final will open Friday’s play on centre court at 3:30 p.m. local time.