Pavic/Soares Up And Running In Vienna
Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares began their title bid at the Erste Bank Open on Monday with a 7-6(7), 6-3 victory against Karol Drzewiecki and Szymon Walkow.
Competing for the first time together since their runner-up finish at Roland Garros, the top seeds won 77 per cent of service points (49/64) to reach the quarter-finals in 81 minutes. Pavic and Soares could face the team which beat them in the Roland Garros championship match — Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies — in their next match. The Germans open their campaign against European Open champions John Peers and Michael Venus.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury needed a Match Tie-break to defeat Grigor Dimitrov and Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 3-6, 10-6. The Australian Open titlists will meet Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski in the quarter-finals.
The Brits, who are currently in eighth place in the FedEx ATP Battle For London, boosted their chances of Nitto ATP Finals qualification with a 7-5, 6-7(1), 10-5 win against home favourites Dominic Thiem and Dennis Novak.