De Minaur/Reid Save 5 M.P. In Roland Garros Win
On Wednesday, doubles teams kicked off their Roland Garros campaigns with two Australian teams saving a flurry of match points.
Alex de Minaur and Matt Reid escaped with a 3-6, 7-6(11), 6-4 win over Federico Delbonis and Divij Sharan. The Aussies saved five match points in the second-set tie-break to advance. De Minaur is seeded No. 21 in the singles draw and faces Marco Cecchinato first on Thursday before retuning for more doubles.
Aussies Max Purcell and Luke Saville outlasted French wild cards Gregoire Barrere and Albano Olivetti 6-2, 6-7(2), 7-6(10), saving three match points before closing out the win.
Home favourites Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut survived a challenge from Brits Cameron Norrie and Jonny O’Mara. The French duo, who won the Roland Garros title together in 2018, moved on with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
Two other seeded teams advanced: No. 14-seeded Germans Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-4, 6-4 over Italians Lorenzo Sonego and Andrea Vavassori, and No. 15-seeded Raven Klaasen and Ben McLachlan 6-3, 6-2 over Frenchmen Mathias Bourgue and Lucas Pouille.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and his partner Dan Added took out Ricardas Berankis and Albert Ramos Vinolas 7-6(1), 6-2 to set up a showdown with second seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
Top seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic withdrew and were replaced by Pablo Andujar and Pedro Martinez. The Spaniards will play an alternate team in the first round.