Jamie Murray/Ken Skupski defeat Colin Fleming/Ross Hutchins to reach quarter-finals at Delray Beach
Britain's unseeded pair of Jamie Murray and Ken Skupski, defeated their compatriot duo of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in the opening round of the doubles category at the Delray Beach International Championships on Wednesday night. Murray and Skupski
settled the contest in one hour and forty two minutes, winning in straight sets at 7-5, 7-6 to qualify for the quarter-final of the doubles event.
It was an evenly poised competition with both teams exhibiting their best tennis skills. Like any other doubles game, the match featured short rallies, with plenty of volleys near the net. The winning pair displayed their combined skills perfectly and won
53 per cent of the total points in the contest. Their first serve per cent was 64, while their opponents had a slightly better figure of 65.
Fleming and Hutchins started off well and put up a decent fight, as they developed a good aggressive strategy to pressurize the opposition but frittered away plenty of unforced errors. Their double-faults count was four in the match.
The opening set witnessed an electrifying contest between the contestants, as Murray and Skupski were very good at their service and delivered 69 per cent of it. However, the winners of the match had to face the break points on a number of occasions in the
first set. They provided eight serve break chances to their rivals, who took advantage of it only once.
An early exchange of break points was seen in the opener. Murray and Skupski had a 41 per cent return points winning percentage to their opponents 36 per cent. The second serve break of the set came from Murray and Skupski, who carried the momentum to seal
the opening set at 7-5.
No significant change was seen in the serve percentage of the competitors in the second set. The winning pair nabbed 18 of their 22 serve points and also won 77 per cent of the second serve. Fleming and Hutchins coughed a break chance, but successfully denied
their opponents from converting it, as both men were weak on returning the serve and only won 4 out of 22 return points.
None of the teams secured a break point and a decisive tie breaker round was imposed. The decider went on neck-to-neck as both contestants exchanged assertive winners down the line. A mini-break towards the end of the tie breaker ensured victory for Murray
and Skupski at 7-6. The winning duo of Murray and Skupski won 42 points from a total of 76 points in the whole match.
Murray and Skupski will face the American pair of Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram in the quarter-final of the event. The Americans outplayed the third seed pair of Israelis, Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram, in the first round.
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