Pavic/Soares Book Quarter-final Spot In Paris
Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares advanced to the Roland Garros quarter-finals on Sunday, beating Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.
The seventh seeds won 76 per cent of first-serve points (42/55) to advance after one hour and 45 minutes. Pavic and Soares are attempting to capture their second straight Grand Slam team title, following their maiden major championship victory as a pairing at the US Open last month.
The Croatian-Brazilian duo has ended Rojer and Tecau’s Grand Slam hopes in back-to-back major championships. Pavic and Soares also beat Rojer and Tecau in last month’s US Open semi-finals. The reigning US Open champions will next face the other team to have achieved Grand Slam success this year: Australian Open winners Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.
Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah needed a final-set tie-break to advance to the quarter-finals in Paris. The top seeds came from a set down to beat Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(3).
Cabal and Farah will meet 2012 Wimbledon champion Frederik Nielsen and Tim Puetz for a place in the semi-finals. Nielsen and Puetz claimed a 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 win against fifth seeds Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek on Court 14.
Nicholas Monroe and Tommy Paul saved one match point to defeat Pablo Cuevas and Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(7). The Americans won three straight points from 6/7 down in the final-set tie-break to advance. Monroe and Paul ended the contest with 113 points, compared to Cuevas and Lopez’s 112. The unseeded pair will next meet US Open finalists Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic. The ninth seeds eliminated 2018 champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 7-6(3).