Rojer/Tecau Attempt Double-Double In New York

One year ago, Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau won 10 consecutive matches to clinch back-to-back titles in Winston-Salem and New York. This year, the Dutch-Romanian duo returns to the US Open with the same goal in mind, leading the field in the final Grand Slam of the year.

Rojer and Tecau, who recently triumphed in North Carolina, will enter the US Open confident of completing a unique ‘double-double’ in Flushing Meadows. The sixth seeds, who own an 18-7 record this season, are bidding to lift their 19th tour-level title as a team. Rojer and Tecau have won two Grand Slam championships, clinching their maiden major crown at Wimbledon in 2015 before their title run 12 months ago in Flushing Meadows.

Rojer and Tecau, who will face Sander Arends and Antonio Sancic in the first round, have won seven of their nine tour-level encounters so far during the North American hard-court swing. The defending champions share the second quarter of the draw with red-hot pairing Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. The fourth seeds have lifted titles at the Citi Open and the Western & Southern Open, their maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 triumph, en route to New York.

In the third round, Rojer and Tecau could meet 10th seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez in a repeat of the 2017 final. The Spanish duo open against Americans Patrick Kypson and Danny Thomas.

Top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic will be aiming to reach their third Grand Slam final of the season at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The Australian Open champions, who also reached the championship match at Roland Garros, meet Leonardo Mayer and Joao Sousa in their opening match. Marach and Pavic have suffered first-round losses in two of their three events since reaching their eighth tour-level final of the season in Hamburg last month.

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut also feature in the top quarter. The 2015 champions, who defeated Marach and Pavic to win their third Grand Slam crown at Roland Garros in June, enter the US Open having played just one match since Wimbledon, at the Rogers Cup (l. to Anderson/Djokovic).

The Frenchmen are seeded to meet Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the third round. Kubot and Melo, who reached the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals championship match, have won just two of their seven most recent tour-level clashes since retaining their Gerry Weber Open title in June.

Headlining the bottom half of the draw are second seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers. The reigning Nitto ATP Finals champions reached the semi-finals in New York on their event debut as a team last season. Kontinen and Peers enter the US Open in fine form, having lifted their 13th tour-level team trophy at the Rogers Cup earlier this month.

Kontinen and Peers are joined by Colombian duo Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the bottom quarter. The fifth seeds, making their seventh US Open appearance, will face Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov in the first round.

Mike Bryan and Jack Sock will be hoping to repeat their Wimbledon heroics in New York. Bryan, who currently shares the all-time record for men’s doubles Grand Slam titles (17) with John Newcombe, is aiming to lift his sixth title in Flushing Meadows.

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Bryan, competing at the US Open for the first time without twin brother Bob Bryan, will aim to improve his 8-3 tour-level record alongside Sock this season with victory over Italians Daniele Bracciali and Marco Cecchinato in the first round.

Bryan and Sock could face Wimbledon finalists Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus in the quarter-finals. Having also reached the Rogers Cup final, Klaasen and Venus will be confident of making a deep run at the final Grand Slam championship of the season. They open their title campaign against Lukas Lacko and John Millman.