Italians Stun Top Seeds Melo & Rojer In Cagliari
Italians Lorenzo Sonego and Andrea Vavassori earned a big victory on Tuesday in Cagliari when they upset top seeds Marcelo Melo and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 to reach the second round of the Sardegna Open.
Melo and Rojer own 64 tour-level doubles trophies between them, but they were unable to navigate past the home favourites. Sonego and Vavassori battled through the Match Tie-break to set a clash against countrymen Andrea Pellegrino and Giulio Zeppieri, who eliminated Nikoloz Basilashvili and Andre Begemann 7-6(6), 1-6, 10-7.
Matteo Berrettini and his younger brother, Jacopo Berrettini, made the most of their tour-level doubles team debut in the last match of the day, clawing past Argentines Guillermo Duran and Guido Pella 5-7, 6-4, 10-8 to reach the second round. Jacopo, who is 22, is currently the No. 402 player in the FedEx ATP Doubles Rankings, and he had never previously played an ATP Tour match in singles or doubles. But the Berrettini brothers fought through, saving eight of the 10 break points they faced.
In the other doubles match of the day in Italy, Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul ousted Roman Jebavy and Igor Zelenay 2-6, 6-3, 10-8.
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Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar, who lifted the trophy in Delray Beach earlier this year, beat fourth seeds Luke Saville and John-Patrick Smith 6-1, 5-7, 12-10 to reach the second round of the AnyTech 365 Andalucia Open in Marbella. Tomislav Brkic and Nikola Cacic, who were victorious in Buenos Aires, eliminated Sander Arends and David Pel 1-6, 6-0, 10-5.
Other teams that advanced in Spain on Tuesday were Santiago Gonzalez/Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela and Hugo Nys/Tim Puetz. Both pairs made it through Match Tie-breaks.