Bob and Mike Bryan beat Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia Lopez 6-3 7-6 (7-4) after 71 minutes in a re-match of their Melbourne semifinal in 2017 to reach the quarter final in the doubles tournament at the Australian Open.
The US twins are bidding to win the seventh Australian Open doubles title in their career as a team and their first trophy at this tournament since 2013.
They will face either Frenchmen Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut or Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury for a spot in the semifinal.
Last November Mike Bryan teamed up with Jack Sock to win the Nitto ATP Finals in London after beating Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 5-7 6-1 13-11 in the title match. In the British capital Mike won his fifth ATP Finals doubles title but the first without his brother Bob, who was sidelined by a hip injury since June and is making his come-back from surgery. They had played their last match together in the 2018 Madrid final, where Bob suffered from hip injury.
Mike Bryan and Jack Sock lifted three titles in their eight events as a team at Wimbledon, US Open and at the Nitto ATP Finals.
The Bryan brothers hold the Open Era record of six doubles titles at the Australian Open. They achieved their most recent Grand Slam title together at the 2014 US Open.
This year’s ASB Classic finalists Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus converted four of their five break point chances in their 6-3 6-1 win over Marcelo Demoliner and Frederick Nielsen setting up a quarter final match against Leonardo Mayer and Joao Sousa, who beat Maximo Gonzales and Nicolas Jarry 6-3 6-4.
Former Nitto ATP Finals champions Henri Kontinen and John Peers won 73 % of their first serve points to beat Radu Albot and Malek Jaziri 7-6 (7-5) 6-4. The Finnish and Australian team will take on either Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares or Kevin Krawietz and Nikola Mektic.
Australian wild cards Blake Ellis and Alexei Popyrin came back from a set down to defeat Marcelo Arevalo and Jamie Cerretani 2-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 after saving one match point at 5-6 in the tie-break of the second set. The home team secured their spot in the quarter final, where they will face Lukasz Kubot and Horacio Zeballos.
