Murray/Soares Escape With Monte-Carlo Opener
Murray/Soares Escape With Monte-Carlo Opener
Murray/Soares win final three points of the match
The newly-minted World No. 1 doubles player and his partner survived a tight opening match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Tuesday.
Jamie Murray, who took over the No. 1 spot in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings last week, and Bruno Soares beat Canadian Daniel Nestor and Czech Radek Stepanek 6-7(5), 7-6(9), 14-12 to move into the quarter-finals. The Brit and the Brazilian, the No. 4 seeds, received a first-round bye.
In the second set, Murray and Soares erased two match points. In the match tie-break, they were down 11-12 as Nestor and Stepanek had a another match point. But the No. 4 seeds earned two mini-breaks and held to win the final three points.
In another close contest, Spaniard David Marrero and Frenchman Benoit Paire defeated the Austrian team of Oliver Marach and Dominic Thiem 7-6(5), 7-6(4). Marrerro and Paire will face the No. 2 seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcelo Melo of Brazil in the second round.