De Minaur And Norrie Advance At Queen's
Alex de Minaur and Cameron Norrie got their cinch Championships doubles campaign underway with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Italian team Matteo Berrettini and Andrea Vavassori at Queen’s on Monday in London.
The Australian-British pair won 70 per cent (30/43) of their first-service points and saved both break points they faced to set up a second-round clash with third seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.
British tandem Dominic Inglot and Luke Bambridge also advanced as they eased past compatriots James Ward and Stuart Parker 6-3, 6-2 in 54 minutes. They next will play second-seeded Colombian pair Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
It was a winning start for Frenchmen Adrian Mannarino and Benoit Paire as well, as they won 53 per cent (9/17) of points on John Millman and Artem Sitak’s second serve’s to win 6-4, 7-6(4).
Over at the NOVENTI OPEN in Halle, Nikola Cacic and Tomislav Brkic fought back to overcome German duo Dustin Brown and Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the first round.
Brkic and Cacic reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros (l. to Herbert/Mahut) and started the grass swing with a win to move to 16-10 on the season. They will now face third seeds Horia Tecau and Kevin Krawietz.
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Hubert Hurkacz joined forces to beat Russian team Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev 6-3, 4-6, 10-5 in another close battle. Auger-Aliassime and Hurkacz, who hit 12 aces on the way to victory, play Jean-Julien Rojer and Wesley Koolhof in the second round.
Elsewhere, Sam Querrey and Austin Krajicek moved past German tandem Daniel Masur and Rudolf Molleker 6-3, 7-5, while Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan defeated Radu Albot and Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6(6), 6-4.