Melo, Murray Set To Square Off For Top Spot

The top spot in the individual Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings is on the line this week after second seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo, and fourth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, won their quarter-final matches on Friday at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.

Dodig and Melo will now square off against Murray and Soares in a semi-final match on Saturday. Should the second seeds prevail, Melo will overtake Murray as No. 1 when the newest Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings are released on Monday.

Dodig and Melo continued through strong form with a dominant victory over Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi, 6-4, 6-4. A lone break of serve in each set was all the 2014 finalists in Monte-Carlo needed as the pair saved all three break points against them in the match.

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“We are very, very happy with how we played again. We tried to play as aggressively as we could and tried to do our best,” said Melo. “We are really looking forward for the next match and hope everything goes well to play another final here in Monte-Carlo.”

Murray and Soares needed exactly one hour to dispatch No. 6 seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florian Mergea, 6-2, 6-3. They also saved all three break points against them in the match while landing an impressive 84 per cent of first serves in play. 

“Playing Dodig and Melo is a very tough match. They’ve been playing extremely well for so many years. They play well on clay. But the toughest part is playing a good friend,” said Soares. “It’s never easy for me to play against Marcelo, but we both know that can happen. So we’re just going to go on court, try and forget about that and try to play our best tennis. The good thing is that it’s great for Brazil that we’re going to have someone in the finals.”

Third seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut extended their winning streak to 12 matches, saving a match point in their quarter-final to defeat Dominic Inglot and Andy Murray, 6-4, 3-6, [12-10]. The British duo erased a 4-8 deficit in the match tie-break and even held a match point at 10-9, but the French pair fought back to take the final three points of the match. Herbert and Mahut are looking to win their third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown in succession after victories in Indian Wells and Miami.

They will now play the unseeded pairing of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, who won their quarter-final over Henri Kontinen and John Peers, 6-4, 6-4. The Colombian pair are looking to win their first-ever ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title.

“We felt very good out there today,” said Farah. “We were returning at a high level and always putting a lot of pressure on their serves. We are very happy to be back in the semis of a Masters 1000 event.”