Pavic/Soares Extend Winning Run In Rome

Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares extended their winning streak to seven matches at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday.

The US Open champions converted five of six break points to defeat Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-3, 6-2 in 66 minutes. Pavic and Soares are aiming to lift their second ATP Masters 1000 trophy as a pairing, having won their maiden team trophy at the level at last year’s Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Pavic and Soares will meet Kitzbühel finalists Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the quarter-finals. The fourth seeds recovered from a set down to beat Canadians Felix Auger-Aliassime and Milos Raonic 4-6, 6-4, 10-3. 

Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov ended Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah’s bid for a third straight Rome trophy. The US Open quarter-finalists saved five of six break points to overcome the top seeds 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 in 82 minutes.

Bopanna and Shapovalov are chasing their maiden team title this week. The pair reached its first ATP Tour championship match at last year’s MercedesCup in Stuttgart.

Bopanna and Shapovalov’s victory ends Cabal and Farah’s 10-match winning streak in Rome. The Colombians won back-to-back trophies in the Italian capital in 2018 and 2019.

The Indian-Canadian tandem will face Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin in the quarter-finals. The Frenchmen dominated a Match Tie-break to eliminate US Open finalists Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-0.