Benneteau/Mahut upset the Bryan Brothers in round two - BNP Paribas Masters 2011
Sheer joy for the local crowd in Paris, as the 62nd ranked French duo of Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut surprised the world number one pair of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in the second round of the BNP Paribas masters
on Thursday evening.
Getting to the main draw of the doubles through a wildcard, Benneteau and Mahut stunned everyone by disposing of the top seeded duo after a stiff contest. The Frenchmen took one hour and thirty two minutes of play to wrap up the
three-setter, 7-6(6), 3-6, 10-8, to book a berth in the quarter-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 1000 event by surprise.
The French crowd was treated with some high quality doubles tennis action from both duos. Benneteau and Mahut fought extremely hard to take the opening set tie breaker, getting one up early in the contest but the top seeded team
made a valiant come back in the following set to bring the competition back on even terms. It all came down to the super tie breaker round, which also went on neck-to-neck before the French competitors sealed their emphatic victory over the top ranked opponents
to advance to the next round of the Paris Masters.
The French wildcards avenged their defeat from the Bryan Brothers, who defeated them way back in 2003 Roland Garros and improved their head-to-head record by 3-6 against the American duo. Benneteau and Mahut fired seven cracking
aces and reeled off 34 out of 42 first serve points in the matchup to come out as the winner.
The action started from the fifth game when the Bryan Brothers broke for the first time in the matchup, only to be broken in the very next game to fall back on equality. A further trade of break points took the opener into a tie
breaker round, which fell to Benneteau and Mahut to give them the upper hand in the contest.
Bob and Mike nailed a serve breaks in the fourth game to pocket the second set at 6-3 but couldn’t sustain their winning momentum in the decider and fell just short of their opponents to finish on the losing side in the end.
Benneteau and Mahut will face the sixth seeded Pole duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in the quarter-finals to battle it out for a spot in the semis of the Masters Series event. The sixth seeded pair was successful
against the other wildcard French duo of Arnaud Clement and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round of the tournament.
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