There were only two doubles matches on Tuesday in Pune, but both were decided by razor-thin margins—and both ended with at least one Italian on the winning side.
Countrymen Federico Gaio and Lorenzo Musetti survived against the all-Mexican pairing of Hans Hach Verdugo and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela, 6-4, 4-6, 10-8, at the Tata Open Maharashtra. One break of serve decided the first two sets, and the victors finished the match with just three more points won than their opponents.
For the #NextGenATP star Musetti, it’s his first tour-level doubles win of the young season, following two losses with another Italian—Gianluca Mager—in Australia. Gaio had not competed in an ATP Tour doubles event since reaching the Rio de Janeiro final with Salvatore Caruso in February 2020, though he did reach two semi-finals at the Challenger level in the interim.
Mager teamed with Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori for a 6-4, 6-4 win against the Aussie fourth seeds, Marc Polmans and Matt Reid. Again, there was just one decisive break of serve in each set, and the winners totalled three more points than their opponents.
Trouble for seeded pairs in Cordoba
The Cordoba Open nearly lost its three top-seeded doubles teams in one day. Only the pairing of Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni, the tournament’s first seeds, escaped with a 6-3, 3-6, 12-10 victory over Brazil’s Orlando Luz and Thiago Monteiro.
The second seeds, Romain Arneodo and Benoit Paire, fell to Andrej Martin of Slovakia and Tristan-Samuel Weissborn of Austria, 6-4, 6-4. The third seeds also failed to win a set; Andre Goransson and Nathaniel Lammons were upset by the Spanish team of Roberto Carballes Baena and Jaume Munar, 7-6(9), 6-3.
Zverev/Melo beaten in Montpellier
It was a different story at the Open Sud de France, where both seeded teams in action advanced. Jonathan Erlich and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, the French-Israeli third seeds, broke serve three times in a 6-3, 6-4 win over Marcelo Melo and Alexander Zverev. Zverev, who lost to Denis Shapovalov in the Australian Open fourth round, was playing his second doubles match of 2022, following an outing with Kevin Krawietz for Team Germany at the ATP Cup.
Fourth seeds Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi took a 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 decision against Alexander Bublik and Mackenzie McDonald, while the French duo of Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg and Luca Van Assche also advanced via a Match Tie-break in their home nation.