Jamie Murray and John Peers are Wimbledon gentlemen’s doubles quarter-finalists for the first time after derailing the defending champions in a five-set tussle on Monday evening.
The Scottish-Australian duo held off Canadian Vasek Pospisil – who fought through a whopping 10 sets of tennis in the same day – and his American partner Jack Sock 6-3, 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 3-6, 8-6 and in the process ensured a triumphant day for the Murray brothers after Andy earlier won through to the singles quarter-finals.
Pospisil, who had earlier won through in five sets to reach his first Grand Slam singles quarter-final, received treatment on his lower back after serving out the fourth set but Murray was left frustrated he and Peers were not able to finish it in straight sets when they had their chances.
“It’s a good win for us, going in the right direction. We beat a really top team today and we’re really proud of our efforts for that but we’ve got to get right back on it tomorrow and play at 1.30, so it’s a quick turnaround,” Murray said.
We should have done a better job of closing the match out in the third set
“I think we did well to win the first two sets. We should have done a better job of closing the match out in the third set because I think they’d kind of started to tap out a little bit. Obviously Vasek had played a lot of tennis the last few days and has got to play Andy on Wednesday, so I don’t think he necessarily was fired up about having to play for another two to three hours.
“I’m sure (Vasek) will be feeling pretty tired tonight. I hope he is anyway cause I’m pretty tired and I haven’t played half as much as him.”
Pospisil saved two match points on serve before Peers clinched it, ripping a forehand low between his opponents with Pospisil unable to scoop it over the net after three hours and 19 minutes.
It sets up a quarter-final showdown with No.8 seeds Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares, the Austrian-Brazilian duo also five-set winners. With a combined age of 84 and 16 Grand Slam men’s doubles titles between them, Daniel Nestor and Leander Paes could not carry the momentum from their comeback, eventually falling short 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 2-6, 6-2.
Three-time Wimbledon champions Bob and Mike Bryan survived a first-set struggle before racing through their match against Croatia’s Mate Pavic and New Zealand’s Michael Venus 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-1. The No.1 seeds will meet India’s Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea, of Romania, after the No.9 seeds snuck three of four tie-break sets against Belarusian Max Mirnyi and Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-6(8).
In a potential glimpse into Australia’s Davis Cup doubles pairing for the upcoming quarter-final against Kazakhstan, Adelaide duo Lleyton Hewitt and Thanasi Kokkinakis bowed out in straight sets to No.4 seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 7-6(7), 6-3, 7-6(1). After twice battling through five-setters to reach the third round the Aussie pair faded in the third-set tie-break. Tecau brought up five match points with a big serve down the T, drawing the easy putaway at the net for Rojer and took it when Kokkinakis fired wide when jammed on a forehand volley.
The Dutch-Romanian pair will take on No.7 seeds Marcin Matkowski and Nedad Zimonjic who saw off Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 7-6(7), 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Israel’s Jonathan Erlich and Philipp Petzschner, of Germany, became the only unseeded duo to reach the quarter-finals with a four-set victory over New Zealand’s Marcus Daniell and Brazil’s Marcelo Demoliner, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. They will take on No.2 seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo, straight-sets victors over 2012 doubles champions Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(6).
