Herbert/Mahut Join Murray/Soares In QF

Top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut moved into the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open on Thursday in Cincinnati, denying the American wild card pairing of Ryan Harrison and Brian Baker, 6-4, 6-7(7), 10-2. The win booked the French duo a showdown with Canadian sixth seeds Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil.

Nestor and Pospisil rallied from a set down to defeat American wild cards Eric Butorac and Taylor Fritz, 6-7(2), 6-4, 10-5. Nestor is a five-time champion in Cincinnati and prevailed last year with Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Butorac is retiring from the ATP World Tour at the US Open.

Third seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares also advanced to the quarter-finals. The British-Brazilian duo did not drop serve in defeating Pablo Cuevas and Marcel Granollers, 6-3, 6-4.

Next up for them is fifth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, who edged past Dominic Inglot and Marcin Matkowski, 6-3, 4-6, 10-8. Inglot and Matkowski fought back from 2/7 to level the Match Tie-break at 7/7, but Rojer and Tecau hung on to prevail.

In a first round match on Thursday, Bernard Tomic and Viktor Troicki advanced via walkover over Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey. The Australian-Serbian pairing then lost against fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo 6-3, 7-5.