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US Open doubles action resumes on Day 6 after an eventful fifth day of play at Flushing Meadows. With the top two doubles seeds already bowing out of the competition in the mixed category, the onus is on the rest of the seeds to try and win the competition.
Sixth seeds Bopanna and Mergea were successful in their doubles match against Fyrstenberg and Gonzalez, while 8th ranked British-Aussie duo Murray and Peers continued their impressive form in the grand slam event with a 7-5 6-1 victory over Santiago Giraldo and Rameez Junaid.
Other results include wins for fourth seeds Matkowski-Zimonjic, seventh seeds Granollers-Lopez, and 12th ranked Herbert-Mahut.
Join us as we preview the men’s, women’s and doubles action in New York tonight, with Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis headlining the events for the day:
Martina Hingis/Sania Mirza (1) vs Michaella Krajicek/Barbora Strycova (13)
The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis will take on Michaella Krajicek from the Netherlands and Barbora Strycova from the Czech Republic when the two doubles pairings meet in Round 3 of the US Open.
The World Number 1s have only dropped five games in the past two rounds, beating the American pair of Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria 6-1 6-2 and dispatching the Switzerland-Taipei team of Timea Bacsinszky and Chia-Jung Chuang 6-1 6-1.
Their 13th seeded opponents reached the third round of the competition with straightforward victories. They won their first round match 6-4 6-4 against Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith and also won the second by a similar margin, knocking out Vania King and Saisai Zheng in Round 2.
This will be the first time that the two pairs have ever faced each other in a competitive tennis match, so it should be a worthwhile watch.
Prediction: Hingis and Mirza to continue with their recent form and move on to the next round.
Jelena Jankovic/Aleksandra Krunic vs Casey Dellacqua/Yaroslava Shvedova (4)
30-year-old Jelena Jankovic may have struggled to get past the first round of the US Open singles event, but she and Aleksandra Krunic qualified to the third round of the women’s doubles event by comfortably winning their second round match against the 14th seeded Spaniards Medina Garrigues and Parra Santonja 6-2 6-2.
The Serbians got their tournament to a good start when they beat the Dutch-German pair of Annika Beck and Demi Schuurs 7-5 6-1 in round 1, and will compete with Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova in the third round at the Flushing Meadows.
The fourth-seeded Australian and Kazakh teammates survived a scare in the first round and took three sets to beat Gavrilova and Van Uytvanck 2-6 6-4 6-0, but looked more comfortable in the second round when they beat Olga Govortsova from Belarus and Lesia Tsurenko in straight sets 6-4 6-0.
There are have been no head-to-head matches between the two doubles pairings.
Prediction: A close match which will be decided in the third set, although Casey Dellacqua and Shvedova should win this one.
Andrea Hlavackova/Lucie Hradecka (7) vs Anna-Lena Groenfeld/Coco Vandeweghe
Seventh-seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka are set to face Anna-Lena Groenfeld from Germany and Coco Vandeweghe from the USA when the two pairs meet each other in the third round of the US Open grand slam.
The Czech pair reached the third round of the last grand slam of the calendar year when they disposed of the American duo of Varvara Lepchenko and Alison Riske in the first round and beat another American pair Tornado Alicia Black and Ingrid Neel in three sets 6-3 4-6 6-1.
Anna-Lena and Coco got their tournament off to a good start when they beat Svetlana Kuznetsova and Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-4. The unseeded pair continued their form into their second round clash against Su-Wei Hsieh from Taiwan and Anastasia Rodionova, knocking out the 10th ranked pairing 7-5 6-4 to raise some eyebrows.
The two teams have never faced each other in a match before this third round clash.
Prediction: Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka to win this one, but maybe not in straight sets.
Sara Errani/Flavia Pennetta (11) vs Raquel Kops-Jones/Abigail Spears (6)
The third round match-up between the 6th and 11th seeds is one of the most anticipated matches of Day 6 of the US Open.
Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta are slowly starting to find their groove after a slow start to the tournament as they gear up to face Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, who didn’t play on Day 5 after Eugenie Bouchard and Elena Vesnina retired the match-up due to the former sustaining an injury in the locker room. Canadian Bouchard has withdrawn from all doubles events, but there is no word yet on her singles participation.
Italians Errani and Pennetta won their opening round match against American pair Falconi and Tatishvili in three sets 3-6 6-0 6-2 and followed it up with a 7-5 6-1 win over Asia Muhammad and Maria Sanchez. Their American opposition has played only one match so far, winning their first round clash against American-Canadian duo Erin Routliffe and Maya Jansen.
This will be the first competitive fixture between the Italians and the Americans although Pennetta has been involved in doubles matches against Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in the past.
Prediction: The sixth seeds to win this one, but expect the opposition to challenge them all the way
Tommy Haas/Radek Stepanek vs Dominic Inglot/Robert Lindstedt
While both Tommy Haas and Radek Stepanek failed to win their respective first-round singles matches at the US Open, they did manage to reach the third round of the men’s doubles event as a team.
The experienced German and Czech pair won their first two matches in three sets, first beating Pablo Cuevas and David Marrero 6-2 3-6 6-3 before stealing a 6-3 3-6 7-6 win against Brazilians Thomaz Bellucci and Marcelo Demoliner.
Their opponents are in the form of Britain’s Dominic Inglot and Robert Lindstedt from Sweden, who started the tournament with a shock defeat of number 2 seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo in three sets 7-6 5-7 6-4. The pair’s second round match against the unseeded Belarussian Aliaksandr Bury and Uzbek Denis Istomin ended in a 7-6 7-6 victory, as look forward to upsetting more top seeds along the way.
Despite Tommy Haas and Radek Stepanek playing on the doubles circuit for a while now, this will be the first time they meet in a doubles match.
Prediction: Tommy Haas and Radek Stepanek to go through because of their collective experience, despite their opponents upsetting the number 2 seeds.
Marcel Granollers/Marc Lopez (7) vs Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut (12)
Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez will be competing in the third round of the US Open, and their opponents will be 12th ranked Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. The two doubles pairs won their opening matches of the tournament fairly easy although they both did struggle in their second round matches, which both went to the third set.
The seventh-ranked duo of Granollers and Lopez brushed past Robin Haase and Julian Knowle 6-3 6-2 but dropped the second set in their second round match against France’s Lucas Pouille and Sergiy Stakhovsky, winning 6-4 4-6 6-2. Herbert and Mahut went through similar matches in their first two rounds, beating Guillermo Duran and Victor Estrella Burgos 6-3 6-4 followed by a struggling 6-3 6-7 7-6 win over Croat Mate Pavic and Aussie Michael Venus.
No head to head records exists for Granollers-Marc Lopez and Herbert-Mahut, making this the first match between the two doubles pairs.
Prediction: The result of this match is a hard one to call but expect the Spanish number seven seeds to win this one.
Philipp Oswald/Adil Shamasdin vs Jamie Murray/John Peers (8)
Eighth seeds Jamie Murray and John Peers continue their race towards the US Open title when they take on unseeded pair Philipp Oswald from Austria and Canadian Adil Shamasdin in Round 3 on Day 6. The Brit-Aussie pair have been comfortably winning their games at the Flushing Meadows so far, beating Americans Bjorn Fratangelo and Dennis Novikov 6-3 6-2 and following it up with a straight-sets 6-1 7-5 win over unseeded Colombian-Australian duo Colombian Santiago Giraldo and Rameez Junaid.
Their opponents Philipp Oswald and Adil Shamasdin encountered a rough second round match but still made it through to the next round after beating Marcus Daniell and Jonathan Marray 4-6 6-4 7-6. The first round clash was a much easier affair as they downed Alexander and Bruno Soares 6-3 6-3, although they will be a little worried ahead of their meeting with Jamie Murray and John Peers.
The third round fixture will be the first competitive tennis match between the two pairs in competitive tennis.
Prediction: Jamie Murray and John Peers to take this one in straight sets.
Anastasia Rodionova/Max Mirnyi vs Raquel Kops-Jones/Raven Klaasen (7)
Unseeded mixed doubles pair Anastasia Rodionova and Max Mirnyi will face number 7 seeds Raquel Kops-Jones and Raven Klaasen in the second round of the US Open. The Australian and the Belarussian won their opening round match against Anda Perianu and Andrei Daescu, beating the Romanian duo in straight-sets 6-2 6-4.
South Africa’s Raven Klaasen and American Raquel Kops-Jones reached the second round courtesy a tense three-setter against Katarina Srebotnik and Dominic Inglot, which ended 7-6 3-6 10-5.
Prediction: The seventh seeds to win this one in a potential three-setter
Julia Goerges/Nenad Zimonjic (8) vs Simona Halep/Horia Tecau
24-year-old Simona Halep, seeded second in the singles, is already through to the fourth round of the women’s singles after her third round victory over Shelby Rogers, but the Romanian is also currently gunning for the mixed doubles title with her partner Horia Tecau. The pair will face Julia Goerges and Nenad Zimonjic after comfortably dispatching Spaniards Arantxa Parra Santonja and David Marrero 6-1 6-2 in the first round.
The 8th ranked German-Serbian pairing of Georges and Zimonjic dropped only two games in their first-round match against Americans Victoria Duval and Christian Harrison, beating their opponents comprehensively to set up a third round meeting with the unseeded Romanians.
Prediction: Georges and Zimonjic are overwhelming favourites to take this one, although the match could go to the third set.
