Top Seeds Doumbia/Reboul Sneak Through In Chengdu

Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul booked a quarter-final spot Thursday at the Chengdu Open, but the top seeds were made to battle to the final point by Robin Haase and Bart Stevens in a tense doubles encounter at the ATP 250.

Doumbia and Reboul were two points from defeat at 7/8 in the Match Tie-break but did not face match point as they held firm for a 6-4, 4-6, 12-10 victory in China’s Sichuan province. The French duo’s 89-minute victory was based a solid serving performance, as it won 88 per cent (35/40) of points behind first serves.

Currently 17th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings after reaching one championship match and four other semi-finals at ATP Tour events this year, Doumbia and Reboul will hope a deep run in Zhuhai can kick-start a late charge towards qualification for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.

Their next test in Zhuhai is a last-eight clash against John Peers and Roman Safiullin, who also enjoyed Match Tie-break success as they downed home wild cards Cui Jie and Wang Aoran 6-0, 4-6, 10-7.

Lammons/Withrow Make Fast Start In Zhuhai
At the Huafa Properties Zhuhai Championships, Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow maintained their good form with an opening 7-5, 6-4 win against Japanese duo Toshihide Matsui and Yoshihito Nishioka.

The third-seeded Lammons and Withrow won their third ATP Tour title of the year in Winston-Salem last month before reaching the quarter-finals at the US Open. They will next face Anirudh Chandrasekar/Vijay Sundar Prashanth or Arjun Kadhe/Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi at the ATP 250.