Mike and Bob Bryan moved two steps closer to claiming their third consecutive Delray Beach Open doubles title with their dismissal of Australians John Millman and John-Patrick Smith 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday night. The top seeds were then handed a walkover into the semi-finals when a leg injury to Mikhail Kukushkin meant he and Illya Marchenko would not take the court.

The Austrian-French pairing of Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin joined the Bryan brothers in the semi-finals after defeating the all-American duo of Denis Kudla and Donald Young 6-4, 6-4. While Millman and Smith failed to get a win on the board, their countrymen Chris Guccione and Bernard Tomic rebounded for a 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 first-round win over Sander Groen and Adelchi Virgili.

Jeremy Chardy and Leander Paes took down No. 4 seeds Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky 6-4, 7-5 while No. 3 seeds Max Mirnyi and Treat Huey landed a 6-3, 7-6(5) win over Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Santiago Gonzalez.

At the Open 13 Provence in Marseille, Aliaksandr Bury and Igor Zelenay were the first through to the doubles semi-finals after a 7-6(6), 6-7(9), 10-3 triumph over Rameez Junaid and Jonathan Marray. In first round matches, Teymuraz Gabashvili and Nick Kyrgios benefitted from a walkover when bronchitis meant Lucas Pouille could not take the court with Nicolas Mahut. Mateusz Kowalczyk and Andreas Siljestrom also advanced with a  7-5, 6-1 win over David Guez and Benoit Paire.

In first round matches at the Rio Open in Rio de Janeiro, second seeds Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal had a routine 6-2, 6-2 victory over Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak, while qualifiers Pablo Carreno Busta and David Marrero downed Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya 6-3, 3-6, 11-9. Paul Henri-Mathieu and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga went through by retirement while trailing Nicolas Monroe and Jack Sock 4-6, 0-3, while Federico Delbonis and Paolo Lorenzi had a 6-4, 6-4 win over Maximo Gonzalez and Andre Sa.

The highest remaining seed at the Delray Beach Open, Grigor Dimitrov, has avoided joining the list of upsets, surviving 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 against Damir Dzumhur on Wednesday night. Trailing a set, the Bulgarian was down a break in the second and third sets before rallying to deny the Bosnian the quarter-final berth.

Dzumhur, making his Delray Beach debut, had avenged his Memphis defeat to Ricardas Berankis in the first round and had the World No. 28 in the Emirates ATP Rankings well and truly on the ropes. 

“I was trying to find my game. I didn’t think I was playing well. All the credit to Damir, he deserved all the way to win,” Dimitrov said. “I was just patient and I was very centred towards the end of the match. I thought I was very composed and just putting the ball in the court, that’s all I had to do. A win is a win.”

It was the Bulgarian who made the stronger start, breaking for 2-0 before surging to 4-1. From there, however, the 23-year-old Dzumhur reeled off five straight games to take the opening set after 39 minutes.

Trailing a break at 2-3 in the second set, Dimitrov broke his opponent to draw level before breaking again to send the match to a decider on his second set point. As with the start of the second set, however, Dimitrov dropped serve immediately and soon found himself down 3-1 in the third. He would survive two break points when serving for the match, eventually taking the last five games to close it out in just under two hours.

“As soon as darkness came it was just a completely different game,” Dimitrov said. “The ball was a little lower. He was chasing a lot of balls down, playing down the line, which surprised me.

“I found a solution, that was it. I knew physically I was going to be there … Today, I had good composure throughout; in the second and third sets things just happened for me.”

German Benjamin Becker is through to his second quarter-final in as many weeks after upsetting sixth seed Steve Johnson 5-7, 7-6(1), 6-3 at the Delray Beach Open on Wednesday. The 34 year old took down the top-ranked American in the draw in two hours and 13 minutes, claiming 72 per cent of first-serve points and converting on four of five break point opportunities.

Becker surged to 5-3 and served for the opening set but lost eight games straight to concede it 7-5 and trail 4-0 in the second before he staged his comeback.

“I got a little bit angry at myself. At 4-0 I tried to hang in there, mix up my game, come into net a little bit more,” Becker said. “I lost a bit of my rhythm after I got angry at myself, I got a bit lucky. Obviously if you’re down two breaks your chances are very slim, but I played a great game to come back to 4-1, then you never know. He starts to think about it.

“I started to play more aggressive, he was more passive. I think the tie-break was the main point. He could easily have won that and won the match.”

Becker landed the break in the third set for 3-1 and carried momentum to the finish line to match his quarter-final run from Memhis last week. “Last year I only had one semi and one quarter, that’s it,” Becker said. “Two quarters, it’s good for me. I feel like I’m playing better right now, on the right track. I’ve still got a lot of improvement, especially my mental game.”

Eighth seed Adrian Mannarino joined Becker in the quarter-finals after a two-hour, 46-minute tussle with Japan’s Tatsuma Ito. The Frenchman pulled through 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 6-3 on the back of 12 aces.

American Rajeev Ram backed up his upset of No. 2 seed Bernard Tomic, outlasting Ukrainian Illya Marchenko 6-2, 7-5, 6-4. The World No. 89 in the Emirates ATP Rankings served for match at 5-4 in the second set, but double-faulted four times to drop serve, before conceding the set. Ram steadied to take the match in two hours and 33 minutes, saving eight of 10 break points.

History doesn’t always repeat itself.

Stan Wawrinka saved two match points in a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(8) second-round win over Sergiy Stakhovsky in Marseille on Wednesday. Last year, the Ukrainian got the better of Wawrinka in the quarter-finals of the Open 13 Provence, but this time, the Swiss hit two unplayable serves in the deciding tie-break to stave off elimination, then landed a backhand pass on his second match point to seal the win in two hours.

The top-seeded Swiss, playing in his first match since the Australian Open (l. to Raonic), improved to 8-1 on the season and is gunning for his second title of the year (Chennai). Stakhovsky came to net 62 times in the pair’s third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting (Wawrinka now leads 2-1) but was on the receiving end of 49 Wawrinka winners, the last one on the final point of the match.

Wawrinka’s quarter-final opponent will be good friend and eighth seed Benoit Paire, or French qualifier Vincent Millot, who beat Rotterdam semi-finalist Nicolas Mahut 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-3.

Rising star Quentin Halys fought his way into the second round with a 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3 win over qualifier David Guez. The 19-year-old wild card claimed his first tour-level win at the Australian Open (d. Dodig) and is currently No. 171 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. He will face Andrey Kuznetsov for a place in the final eight.

No. 6 seed David Goffin advanced to the quarter-finals when Mischa Zverev retired with the Belgian leading 6-1, 2-0.

Wild card Thiago Monteiro made his ATP World Tour debut in front of his home crowd in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, and what a debut it was. The 21 year old, No. 338 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, knocked off third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in just over two hours on Quadra Guga Kuerten to advance to the second round.

The Rio de Janeiro resident, who reached an ATP Challenger Tour semi-final in the city last month, landed 67 per cent of first serves and scored the only break of serve in the deciding set to eliminate Tsonga, who was coming off a quarter-final appearance in Buenos Aires last week.

Other players in action on Wednesday include Buenos Aires titlist Dominic Thiem, defending champion David Ferrer and No. 7 seed Fabio Fognini.