A day after Stan Wawrinka edged Alexander Bublik in an entertaining ABN AMRO Open first-round singles clash, the pair combined to cause an upset in the doubles draw at the indoor ATP 500 event.
Bublik and Wawrinka defeated second seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-7 in Rotterdam. Although the Kazakh-Swiss pair did not carve out a break point in the 78-minute encounter, they took ultimately unassailable early leads in both the second-set tie-break and the Match Tie-break to notch a notable victory against the Croatian stars.
Next up for Bublik and Wawrinka in Rotterdam are Belgian qualifiers Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen. In the same half of the draw, Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek also needed a Match Tie-break to see off Fabrice Martin and Andrey Rublev. The Croatian-American pair, which qualified for the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals in their first year as a team, prevailed 3-6, 6-4, 10-4 to reach the quarter-finals.
Also on Tuesday, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden downed Australian Open finalists Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski 7-6(6), 4-6, 10-5, while Grigor Dimitrov and four-time Rotterdam doubles winner Nicolas Mahut beat Andreas Mies and John Peers 6-3, 6-3.
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Bolleli/Fognini Breeze Through In Buenos Aires
At the Argentina Open, Simone Bolleli and Fabio Fognini delivered a dominant display to defeat Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul 6-1, 6-3 and avenge their first-round defeat to the French pair at January’s Australian Open.
The third-seeded Bolelli and Fognini, who lifted the Buenos Aires title in 2013, converted five of 12 break points in their 69-minute victory against last week’s Cordoba finalists. The Italian duo will next take on home favourites Sebastian Baez and Facundo Bagnis in the quarter-finals.
The other doubles action at the clay-court ATP 250 in the Argentine capital Tuesday saw Cordoba semi-finalists Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov defeat Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler 6-4, 6-4.
Verdugo/Reyes-Varela Pull Away In Delray
Hans Hach Verdugo and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela edged Diego Hidalgo and Hunter Reese 3-6, 7-5, 10-6 to advance to the quarter-finals at the Delray Beach Open. Despite converting just two of 13 break point opportunities in the one-hour, 43-minute first-round clash, Mexican duo Verdugo and Reyes-Varela maintained their composure and were never behind in the Match Tie-break.
Their next opponents at the hard-court ATP 250 in southern Florida will be third seeds Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow or Nuno Borges and Andre Goransson.
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