TENNIS DAVIS 2015 – Out of all eight ties in play, only France and Serbia have sealed their pass to the quarter finals after Saturday’s doubles rubbers. Bruno Bergareche Sans
Out of all eight ties in play, only France and Serbia have sealed their pass to the quarter finals after Saturday’s doubles rubbers.
Benneteau and Mahut didn’t let the pressure of being clear favourites get to them and they strolled to a straight sets victory against Becker and Begemann which put an end to German hopes in Frankfurt. The French now await the winners of Great Britain v USA in the next round.
Serbia also took the fast route to the next round with a whitewash that will sting their local neighbours Croatia. Bogdan Obradovic left nothing down to chance and fielded his strongest pairing of Djokovic and Zimonjic who only conceded eight games in their convincing win against Skugor and Draganja. Next up for Serbia are the winners of Argentina v Brazil.
And in that tie, it’s Brazil who have gone a step closer to gaining access to the quarter finals. Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares were also the heavy favourites before stepping out onto the clay courts of Buenos Aires and they too delivered with a straight sets win against Diego Schwartzmann and Carlos Berlocq. It’s down to Leo Mayer to keep Argentina in it when he faces Joao Souza in the fourth rubber, whilst Carlos Berlocq and Thomaz Bellucci await a possible fifth rubber.
The Czech pairing of Vesely and Pavlasek needed five long sets to defeat Hewitt and Groth and ensure that they live to fight another day. Lukas Rosol has his country’s expectations on his shoulders as he faces Bernard Tomic in the fourth rubber. Jiri Vesely and Thanasi Kokkinakis would square off in a potential fifth rubber.
As expected, Corrado Barazzutti fielded his dream team in the doubles and Australian Open champions Fogning and Bolelli responded in kind with a four set win against Golubev and Nedovysevov that leaves last year’s semi finalists just one win away from the quarter finals. Andreas Seppi takes on Mikhail Kukushkin in the fourth rubber with Andrey Golubev and Simone Bolelli awaiting a potential fifth rubber.
Belgium recovered from a slow start in their tie with a four sets win for Bemelmans and Desein against Bossel and Lammer, with Switzerland proving to be a much pluckier opponent than expected. Steve Darcis will look to seal the deal in tomorrow’s fourth rubber against Henri Laaksonen. If needed, Ruben Bemelmans and Michael Lammer are set to play in the final rubber.
After Raonic and Nishikori did the job against Ito and Pospisil respectively, Nestor and Pospisil squared off against Soeda and Uchiyama in the wee hours of Saturday as both sides look to take an edge into Sunday’s rubbers which kick off with a mouth watering tie between Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori.
