Playing as a pair for the first time this season, Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut picked up where they left off at the Open Sud de France on Wednesday.
The 2021 Nitto ATP Finals doubles champions scored a 6-2, 6-2 win over Nikoloz Basilashvili and Dustin Brown in Montpellier. The top-seeded French duo raced to 3-0 and 4-0 leads in sets one and two, and held on for the win behind a perfect five-for-five mark on break points. Brown and Basilashvili threatened on the return as well, but could only take one of their eight break chances.
With Herbert not travelling to Australia in January, Mahut teamed with countryman Fabrice Martin but suffered a first-round exit after three sets at the year’s first Grand Slam event.
One of three all-French teams to reach the last eight, Herbert/Mahut will face countrymen Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg and Luca Van Assche in the quarters. Martin and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are also through following a straight-set win on Monday.
Also in opening-round action, Jonny O’Mara of Great Britain and Hunter Reese of the United States knocked off the second-seeded duo of Matwe Middelkoop and Philipp Oswald, 6-3, 6-4. One quarter-final match has already been completed, with Britain’s Lloyd Glasspool and Finland’s Harri Heliovaara getting past Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, 6-4, 6-4. Nedovyesov/Qureshi, the fourth seeds in Montpellier, beat Mahut/Martin to reach the second round at the Australian Open.
Top Seeds Survive In Cordoba
Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni battled through three tie-breaks, including a Match Tie-break, to reach the semi-finals at the Cordoba Open. The top seeds edged the Italian duo of Lorenzo Sonego and Andrea Vavassori, 7-6(6), 6-7(2), 10-3.
The Mexican-Argentine duo trailed by a break in both sets but answered back each time.
They also had to claw back from 1/4 down in the first set tie-break, but never trailed in the Match Tie-break after opening up a 4/0 lead.
The only other doubles match of the day completed the opening round, as the fourth-seeded Argentine pairing of Guillermo Duran and Maximo Gonzalez beat Facundo Bagnis and Albert Ramos-Vinolas, 6-2, 6-4, to reach the quarter-finals.
Quarter-finals Set In Pune
Four matches completed the opening round at the Tata Open Maharashtra on Wednesday, with all but one decided in straight sets.
Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan, the tournament’s second seeds, went the distance in a 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 win over Americans Nicholas Monroe and Jamie Cerretani. Bopanna/Ramanathan are one of three Indian teams still in contention in Pune. Saketh Myneni and Mukund Sasikumar also advanced to the quarter-finals on Wednesday, while N.Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan are already into the semis after a win and a quarter-final walkover.