First-seeded Romanian Horia Tecau and Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer qualified on Sunday to the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year, by defeating Italians Marco Cecchinato/Andreas Seppi 7-6 (0), 6-3.
The Romanian-Dutch pairing took one hour and 26 minutes to secure the 360 ATP points and a share of 80,000 Australian dollars (approx. 56,000 U.S. dollars) of the 44 million AUD (30.736 million USD) total prize money that come with the qualification. They served five aces (against Italians’ three), three double faults (versus four of their opponents), and had more winners (31-26) and the same number of unforced errors (11), for better percentages on the first serve (84pct-73pct) and second serve (57pct-41pct).
Last year, Tecau and Rojer had reached the semifinals. More…