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French Open: Murray & Soares ease into R3

Glenys Furness
Tennis

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By Glenys Furness

  • Jamie Murray & Bruno Soares secure a place in Round 3
  • Defeated David Guez & Vincent Millot 6-2 7-6(5)

PARIS, FRANCE-  Jamie Murray continued his assault on the French Open doubles title with another straight sets win.

Britwatch Tennis:


Murray & Soares were against the French team of David Guez and Vincent Millot. The seeds also had the crowd against them, hardly surprising as it is the home slam of any French player.

The reigning Australian Open champions certainly did not let this phase them in the first set breaking the French team twice. Murray & Soares did not face any break points on their own serve.

No matter what Guez & Millot threw at their opponents, they were unable to make in roads on the serve of the fourth seeds, and they soon found themselves down a set.

In the second set, the French pairing started to play much better, and actually managed to break the serve of the Brit/Brazilian pairing twice. However Murray & Soares broke back each time to keep the scoreboard level and force a tiebreak.

A very close breaker followed with neither side wanting to give an inch. Eventually the experience of the fourth seeds shone through as they edged the tiebreak 7-5 to make the third round.

Colin Fleming & Jonathan Erlich were also in action bidding for a third round spot. Their opponents were the 14th seeds Daniel Nestor & Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. The Canadian/Pakistani team found themselves in a tough match, but managed the Brit/Israeli twice in the first set, and save break point on their own serve.

Fleming & Erlich could not retrieve the breaks in the first set despite their best efforts, and were soon at the wrong end of a completed set. In the second set the Brit/Israeli played much better and saved five break points on their serve. Nestor & Qureshi nanaged to save their only break point faced, and a tiebreak was required to separate them in the second set.

The 14th seeds played the better in the tiebreak, although Fleming & Erlich tried to keep things close. Nestor & Quershi edged the breaker 7-4 to win the match in straight sets 6-3 7-6.

On the women’s side, Jocelyn Rae & Anna Smith were against the third seeds Hao-Ching Chan & Yung-Jan Chan in the second round. The Brits did not get off to the best of starts, and were broken by the Taipei team. The Chan sisters did not face any break points in the first set.

Rae & Smith found themselves outclassed in the second set as the third seeds dominated. Unfortunately the Taipei players were just too good and took the match comfortably 6-3 6-2.

Naomi Broady & Louisa Chirico had made the draw as alternates and were up against it from the start yesterday. Vitalia Diatchenko & Galina Voskoboeva had a higher combined ranking than the Brit/American, which showed right from the off.

The Russian/Kazakh were impressive in the first set, not facing a single break point in all their service games. Broady & Chirico struggled against their higher ranked opponents, and Diatchenko & Voskoboeva pressed the advantage breaking serve  twice as they dominated the first set, taking the lead in the match.

The Brit/American played better in the second set, managing to back up the excellent serving of the first set with many more first serves landing in. Unfortunately the Russian/Kazakh backed up their serves with more points won.

For the first time in the match the Brit/American created break points on their opponents serve and converted one of the two chances. This was not enough though as Diatchenko & Voskoboeva broke twice to take the match 6-1 6-4.

Play continues in Paris from 10am BST 29th May 2016.