The top-seeded duo of Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski were the lone seeds to advance to the quarter-finals at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC. On Thursday, the Dutch-British team stayed on course for its first title of 2023 with a second straight-sets win on the week.
Koolhof/Skupski defeated Rio de Janeiro semi-finalists Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the last four in Acapulco. They did not face a break point in the match and won 83 per cent of their first-serve points in the win. Despite losing one of the points of the week, when a Reboul lob capped a defensive masterclass from the French team, the top seeds are through to their second semi-final of the season.
Their next opponents will be Austrians Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler, who beat William Blumberg and Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-3.
In the day’s most dramatic match, Andre Goransson and Ben McLachlan edged Americans Mackenzie McDonald and Ben Shelton 6-1, 6-7(4), 11-9. The Swedish-Japanese team clinched victory on its fourth match point after missing out on two on serve at 5-4 in the second set. In the Match Tie-break, they fell behind 7/8 after holding leads of 5/0 and 7/2, but recovered to win four of the last five points.
SFs Set In Dubai
Two straightforward Thursday quarter-finals rounded out the last four at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Third seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara beat Indian lucky losers Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni 6-4, 6-3, while Maxime Cressy and Fabrice Martin defeated Dutchmen Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop 6-4, 6-3. Neither pair has dropped a set this week at the ATP 500.
Glasspool/Heliovaara will face top seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic in the semis, with Cressy/Martin set to meet Belgian lucky losers Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.
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Chileans Barrios Vera/Tabilo Down Top Seeds In Santiago
All three seeded teams in action on Thursday at the Movistar Chile Open were upset, with home favourites Tomas Barrios Vera and Alejandro Tabilo knocking off top seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni.
The Chileans scored a 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 victory to advance to the semi-finals. They will meet Italians Andrea Pellegrino and Andrea Vavassori, who upset third seeds Nicolas Barrientos and Ariel Behar 7-6(12), 6-3.
In the other half of the draw, Spaniards Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar downed fourth seeds Francisco Cabral and Nikola Cacic 6-4, 6-4, while Thiago Seyboth Wild and Matias Soto beat N.Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.
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