Israel’s Jonathan Erlich and Great Britain’s Dominic Inglot upset top seeds Henri Kontinen and Ben McLachlan 4-6, 7-6(4), 10-6 on Wednesday to reach the second round of the Sofia Open.
Erlich and Inglot were effective on serve, winning 74 per cent of their first-serve points to advance after one hour and 41 minutes.
Second seeds Tomislav Brkic and Nikola Cacic, this year’s Buenos Aires champions, avoided another upset by reaching the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-7 victory against Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
Brkic and Cacic saved eight of the nine break points they faced and broke twice to move on in Bulgaria. Australians Luke Saville and John-Patrick Smith, the fourth-seeds, also advanced following a 7-6(4), 7-6(2) win over Sweden’s Andre Goransson and Monaco’s Hugo Nys.