Australian Open: Yuki Bhambri exits doubles as Brazilian friends advance

MELBOURNE: The Brazilian pair of Rafael Matos and Orlando Bloom are long-time friends, playing their first Grand Slam together, after pairing at the Challenger and Future levels. On Monday, they stormed the Australian Open men’s doubles quarterfinals, taking down their second successive seeded opponents in tenth seeds Yuki Bhambri and Swede Andrew Goransson 7-6 (7), 6-3.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The 30-year-old Matos, ranked 43, and the 27-year-old Luz, ranked 59, had beaten the fifth seeds Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz in the second round.The Brazilians took a 6-3 lead in the tie-break before Bhambri and Goransson, who started the shoot-out slowly, won four straight points, fighting off three successive set points to give themselves a chance to close the set. The Brazilians then bounced back on their fourth set point when Goransson, perhaps blinded by the sun on another warm day at Melbourne Park, buried an overhead in the net.The tenth seeds recovered well from the last point of the opening set and in the second struck first, breaking in the fifth game. Matos and Luz, however, refused to be undone and broke the Goransson serve in the sixth game, winning four successive games to clinch the match.“We stayed mentally strong,” Luz said, “We were helped by the fact that we did the off-season together.”In the junior girls doubles, Maaya Rajeswaran Revathi and Aussie Renee Alame put out the alternates, the Japanese pairing of Azuna Ichioka and Ran Wakana 6-4, 6-2.Maaya and Alame will take on Alexandra Malova and Alisa Terentyeva in the round-of-16 on Tuesday.