Murray/Lopez Save 1 M.P. To Beat Kubot/Melo In Montreal

Andy Murray and Feliciano Lopez took the title in their debut outing as a team two months ago at the Fever-Tree Championships. They continued their unbeaten streak on Tuesday at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal, saving a match point in their first-round upset over second seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 6-7(5), 6-3, 11-9.

”In the Match Tie-break, it felt like we were hitting so many good shots and not getting rewarded for it,” said Murray. “It was tight at the end, but we did well to get through.”

Lopez erased a match point with an ace at 8/9 in the Match Tie-break before his team advanced in one hour 58 minutes. Their draw doesn’t get any easier as they face Roland Garros finalists Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin in the next round.

”Whenever I play with Andy, it’s a lot of fun,” said Lopez. “Today was very special as well. I think we deserved the win because we played well overall.”

Defending champions Henri Kontinen and John Peers became the first seeded team to prevail this week in Montreal. The sixth seeds completed a wild 6-7(3), 6-2, 15-13 win over Radu Albot and Karen Khachanov by saving two match points at 10/11 and 12/13 in the Match Tie-break. Kontinen/Peers will now face Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos, who also saved a match point at 4-5, 40/40 in the second set to defeat Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-3.

Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov scored a 4-6, 6-1, 10-6 comeback victory over fourth seeds and Wimbledon finalists Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Bopanna/Shapovalov recorded their first ATP Tour doubles final as a team this June in Stuttgart (l. Peers/Soares).

Benoit Paire and Stan Wawrinka saved four set points to close out their 6-4, 7-6(7) win over Fabio Fognini and Lucas Pouille. Paire/Wawrinka fought back from 3/6 and 6/7 in the second-set tie-break to advance in one hour and 20 minutes. Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury rallied from 2-5 in the second set and saved two set points at 4-5 en route to a 7-5, 7-5 victory against Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski.

Rounding out the day were Canadian wild cards Peter Polansky and Brayden Schnur, who moved past Marcus Daniell and Laslo Djere 6-4, 7-6(3).