Mektic/Pavic Top Serbia’s Sabanov Twins In Belgrade

In a dramatic day of quarter-final doubles action at the Serbia Open, all three matches went the distance and one seeded team was sent home.

Top seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic survived a Match Tie-break to knock off home favourites Ivan Sabanov and Matej Sabanov, while third seeds Max Purcell and Matthew Ebden missed out on two match points in a loss against Tomislav Brkic and Nikola Cacic.

Mektic and Pavic came from behind against Serbia’s Sabanov twins to advance to the semi-finals, 2-6, 6-3, 10-4. The established Croatian pairing is seeking its first ATP Tour title of 2022, after falling one point short in the Dubai final in February, when the duo held three championship points against Tim Puetz and Michael Venus.

They’ll face Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski as they bid for their second final of the year, after the Monagesque-Polish pairing defeated Ben McLachlan and Andre Goransson, 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.

FOLLOW THIS WEEK’S ACTION

📺 TV Schedule
🎾 Watch Live On Tennis TV
📱 Follow Live Scores On ATP Tour App
📧 Sign Up For Newsletters

Ebden and Purcell, champions in Houston earlier this month, saw their win streak snapped at five after a 3-6, 7-6(9), 10-4 result. The Aussies could not serve out the match at 6-5 in the second, then had two match points go begging at 6-4 in the tie-break. 

Brkick and Cacic dominated the Match Tie-break, winning the first three points and racing to a 9-2 lead before closing it out on their third match point. Both men were born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, with Cacic playing under the Serbian flag.