The sixth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau defeated Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta 7-5, 3-6, 10-3 on Court Two to book their spot in the quarterfinals at the Rolex Paris Masters.
Lone break heads the sixth seeds way
The match began with all four players on the court holding their service games pretty comfortably with the scores locked at 2-2. However, in the sixth game, the match began to open up as the London bounds Rojer/Tecau fell behind triple breakpoints as the Dutch Antilles player sent a simple forehand wide of the line.
The errors then began flowing from the unseeded pair as all three breakpoints were squandered with the game going to deuce. The sixth seeds also won the next two points as they scraped through the game to restore parity at 3-3. In the next game, despite struggling on serve, Gonzalez did manage to hold serve and once again pile pressure on Rojer/Tecau.
But they dealt with the pressure and sailed through their game to love to draw once more level at 4-4 with the set nicely poised. Both teams were doing battle nicely on court two and could not be separated as the set neared its climax with both teams level, 5-5.
However, the sixth seeds found inspiration from 40-15 behind to draw level and earn a breakpoint with a pinpoint accurate return from Tecau. The Mexican crumbled on return firing a volley into the net to get broken, 6-5. A mishit return gave Rojer/Tecau a first set point. Tecau initially hit a double-fault but on the next point finished the job to go a set ahead, 7-5.
Gonzalez/Peralta fight back to draw level
Having won the first set, Rojer/Tecau came out for the second with much-needed confidence. Almost immediately, the pair grabbed a double break point chance with Peralta struggling with any real consistency. An ace saved one of the breakpoints momentarily but Tecau's return was on point again, breaking the unseeded pair to gain an early advantage.
But the pair couldn't press home their advantage as the Mexican/Brazilian duo fought back to earn a break back point following a rare double-fault by the Romanian. He then redeemed himself by firing an unreturnable serve.
Peralta's constant pressure did the job as the 36-year-old failed to anticipate the lob. The pair got back on track by holding to love for 1-2. The next two service games went the exact same way with Gonzalez/Peralta ahead at 2-3. Showing fighting qualities in this set, the unseeded pair then grabbed their third breakpoints of this set at 30-40.
Camped at the net, Rojer for the second straight point fired a blank into the net as he and Tecau fell behind in this set, 2-4. Gonzalez impressively consolidated, losing just one point to go 2-5 ahead. The sixth seeds held to love as they attempted to put pressure on their opponents. Having dropped the opening point, the pair went on to win the next three to bring up a set point. And, first time of asking, they sealed the set, 3-6.
Sixth seeds run away with match tiebreaker to advance
The breaker was immediately dominated by Rojer/Tecau who gained their groove back to break their opponents twice after holding to go 3-0 up. Playing confident tennis in the breaker, nothing was getting past the solid and consistent duo who made it 6-0 by breaking for the third time and were on the brink of advancing.
For the first time in the breaker, Gonzalez/Peralta won a point to get on the board but Tecau/Rojer were far superior and as both teams held their own, it was the sixth seeds who advanced 10-3 on an unforced error by Gonzalez.