Three Austrians have reached the second round in the doubles competition of the Australian Open. Oliver Marach, Alexander Peya and Philipp Oswald all mastered their opening hurdles, Andreas Haider-Maurer starts on Thursday.
Oliver Marach (AUT) / Mate Pavic (CRO) (7) – Federico Delbonis (ARG) / Victor Estrella Burgos (DOM) 6:1,6:4
Marach/Pavic remain unbeaten in 2018! In the first set, the two quickly stormed to a 5-0 win before Delbonis/Estrella scored for the first time. The second set was much more evenly balanced and Marach/Pavic had to give up their serve at a score of 2:3. Afterwards, however, they lost only one point and finally entered the round of the last 32 very confidently.
Philipp Oswald (AUT) / Max Mirnyi (BLR) – Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) / Dudi Sela (ISR) 7:6 (5), 3:6,7:6 (4)
What a tough fight at the start: Mirnyi/Oswald needed two hours and 27 minutes for her opening victory. In the first set, the Vorarlbergers’ team was already trailing 5-3 before they made it into a tiebreak, in which two mini-breaks were decisive. After a second set, which was fiercely contested especially in the final phase, no doubles managed to break in the final round of the match, which is why another tie-break had to decide. Mirnyi/Oswald held the upper hand there and secured the fourth victory in the fifth match of the season.
Alexander Peya (AUT) / Nikola Mektic (CRO) – Julien Benneteau (FRA) / Jonathan Eysseric (FRA) 6:3,6:0
After only 46 minutes, the second Austrian-Croatian pairing entered the second round. Although Peya and Mektic have lost their two matches on the tour so far, they were in good shape at their opening match in Melbourne, where they were unable to break a single break for the entire match. The day before Benneteau had entered the second round with a win over Taro Daniel in the singles, but in the doubles he was denied this with his partner Eysseric, with whom he was only on tour for the second time.
Andreas Haider-Maurer, who had failed in the first round with Alexander Dolgopolov in the singles, plays with his standard double partner Nikoloz Basilashvili. The Georgian had defeated Gerald Melzer in four sets on Monday. The duo will play against Leander Paes and Raja Purav from India.