Isner/Sock Ride Near-Perfect Serving Into Dallas SFs
In opposite halves of the Dallas Open doubles draw, two all-American teams took the court for Thursday quarter-final matchups with contrasting results.
Wild cards John Isner and Jack Sock continued their run to the semis with a 6-0, 7-6(2) win over the German duo of Peter Gojowczyk and Oscar Otte, while Marcos Giron and Brandon Nakashima dropped a 6-1, 7-6(4) decision to top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer.
Another all-U.S. duo, Sam Querrey and Jackson Withrow, will play Friday for a chance to reach semi-finals.
Isner and Sock stormed through the opening set, then used four consecutive love holds to stay in front in the second. After missing out on a match point on the return at 5-6, the Americans won six straight points to run away with the tie-break and the match.
They did not face a break point in the contest, with their opponents never getting as close as deuce on the return. Isner and Sock dropped just six points on serve in the match (41/47), good for an 87 per cent win rate.
It was a similar start for Arevalo and Rojer, who quickly went up 3-0 against Giron and Nakashima. The second set did not yield a break point, but five of the 11 points in the tie-break went against serve as the duo from El Salvador and the Netherlands advanced.
There was more doubles drama at the Argentina Open, where two of Thursday’s three contests were decided by a Match Tie-break. After saving three match points, second seeds Fabio Fognini and Horacio Zeballos survived with a 5-7, 6-2, 14-12 win over Andrea Collarini and Mario Vilella Martinez.
In another comeback win, fourth seeds Tomislav Brkic and Nikola Cacic defeated Miomir Kecmanovic and Fernando Romboli, 6-7(3), 6-3, 10-7.
In the lone doubles match at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament, fourth seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski edged Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov, 6-4, 3-6, 10-7, to reach Saturday’s semi-finals.