Leonardo Mayer and Joao Sousa booked their places in the Australian Open doubles semi-finals on Tuesday by beating sixth seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus 6-4, 7-6(6) in one hour and 32 minutes.
Mayer and Sousa, contesting their 13th tour-level tournament together (19-12 match record), broke Venus in the opening game and at 4-4 in the first set. There were no breaks of serve in the second set, but a double fault from Klaasen at 6/6 in the tie-break cost last year’s Wimbledon finalists.
“Playing in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam here with Leo is a great pleasure,” said Sousa, during an on-court interview. “The support of the crowd was very important. We played a great match.”
They await the winners of third seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, the 2016 champions, and No. 12 seeds and 2017 titlists Henri Kontinen and John Peers, who play on Wednesday.
In the bottom half of the draw, fourth seeds and six-time former champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan challenge fifth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. Seventh seeds Lukasz Kubot and Horacio Zeballos take on Ryan Harrison and Sam Querreyreadfullarticle
