Peya/Soares overcome Cermak/Mertinak in the third round – US Open 2012
Seeded 15th in the draw, Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares came back after dropping the opener to beat the Czech-Slovakian duo of Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak in three sets 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(3) in the round of 16
of the US Open Men’s doubles event on Monday.
It took the Austrian-Brazilian duo two hours and 23 minutes to clinch victory in a hard fought contest.
Peya and Soares have paired up just for the third time in their career. They made their debut at the SkiStar Swedish Open in Bastad this year, losing to Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau in the final.
Their third round encounter against Cermak and Mertinak was the best doubles match of the day, which saw only one break of serve in three sets.
Both teams made a solid beginning, as they held their opening serves without losing a single point. Peya/Soares and Cermak/Mertinak did not allow each other to strike till the end and levelled the score at 6-6 to take the set to
a tie-breaker. First six points were won by servers but then the Czech-Slovakian pair earned a mini-break and capitalised on it to take the opener 7-6(5).
Stunned by the impressive performance of their opponents, Peya and Soares could not stop them from going neck to neck in the first six games of the second set to take the score to 3-3. However, the Austrian-Brazilian duo raised
the level of their play later on, bagging three in a row to seal the second set 6-3 and square off the match score at one set apiece.
Decider was expected to go to the wire and this was what happened, as both teams won their serve throughout to take the score to 6-6 and force a tie-break. Peya and Soares started with a 2-0 lead but their opponents also clinched
two straight points to draw level at 2-2. However, the Austrian-Brazilian combination took full control of the contest from there onwards, winning five of the next six points to capture it 7-6(3).
Peya and Soares are pitted against the sixth seeds, Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez of Spain, in the quarter-finals.
Tags: