By Philip James
Delgado/Skupski(1) 7-5 3-6 10-2 Authom/ Brezac.
Lindstedt/Zimonjic (3) 4-6 0-1 retired Fleming/Marray
Malisse/Moser (4) 6-4 6-4 Murray/Peers
British men experienced a win, a loss and a retirement in their doubles match ups on Thursday.
Jamie Delgado and Ken Skupski, top seeds at the Open BNP Paribas in Quimper, France, emerged victorious from their second-round match against Belgian Maxime Authom and Frenchman Charles-Antoine Brezac.
The all-British team would have expected a win over their much lower ranked opponents and sneaked the first set 7-5 after exchanging early breaks.
They faltered in the second set, dropping to a 47% first serve percentage and winning only two return points but recovered to take the match on a Champion’s Tie-break in just over an hour and ten minutes.
They will hope to continue their run in the Challenger tour tournament when they play German-Austrian pairing of Dominik Meffert and Philipp Oswald in their semifinal tomorrow.
Meanwhile in Rotterdam, Colin Fleming and Jonathan Marray experienced bitter disappointment as they were forced to retire from their match whilst a set and a break up.
Despite facing the third seeded pairing of Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic, the Brits acquitted themselves admirably, taking the first set on a single break.
When they broke in the first game of the second set, there was a real possibility of a significant victory over two of the world’s top doubles players.
Sadly an injury to Marray meant the pair had to retire allowing the third seeds to progress to the semi-final of the ATP 500 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.
Had to retire from our match today. Gutted for @jonnymarray getting injured especially in a winning position. He’ll be back soon hopefully!
— Colin Fleming (@colin_fleming) February 14, 2013
There is no news yet on the extent of what is reported to be a calf injury for Marray, but the pair and fans alike will hope this is only a temporary set-back for the promising partnership.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, British tennis had suffered its first loss of the day as Jamie Murray and his partner John Peers were beaten in the first round of the SAP open.
A tough draw had paired them against the fourth seeded team of Germany’s Frank Moser and Belgium’s Xavier Malisse.
Malisse, a veteran of both the singles and doubles tour, and Moser, ranked 79th in the world in doubles, proved too much for the British-Australian pairing, winning in just under an hour.