From Early-Round Scares To The Semis: Pavic/Soares Advance At US Open

Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares have faced a difficult road to the US Open semi-finals. That has made their success in Flushing Meadows even more rewarding.

The Croatian-Brazilian team defeated Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski, last week’s Western & Southern Open finalists, 6-2, 7-6(4) on Monday in the quarter-finals. It is the first time they have reached a Grand Slam semi-final as a team.

In the first round, Pavic and Soares rallied from a break down in the third set against 2019 US Open finalists Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos. In the second round, Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow served for the match against them. But the 2019 Rolex Shanghai Masters champions have persevered.

“We came back from all of those tough situations. Tough match on paper today. They didn’t play a great first set, but then they started playing much better in the second,” Pavic said. “We won three tough matches. We’re playing well. We’re playing better and better each match, so we’re happy from everything.”

The Croatian believes that overcoming those deficits only helped them raise their level. Pavic and Soares went unbroken in their one-hour, 26-minute quarter-final victory.

“It helps a lot, especially when you get back from those situations when people are serving for the match and stuff like that,” Pavic said. “You build confidence after those wins. With a break for six months, nobody played for six months… we didn’t play a lot of matches, so it’s good that we’re here.”