ATP Tour

Arevalo/Pavic keep pace in battle for Year-End No. 1 with Cincinnati QF berth

Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic earned a crucial win in their bid to retain their ATP Year-End No. 1 finish on Thursday at the Cincinnati Open.

The defending champions at the hard-court ATP Masters 1000 event defeated Marcelo Melo and Alexander Zverev 6-2, 7-6(3) to return to the quarter-finals. The reigning Year-End ATP No. 1 Doubles Team, Arevalo and Pavic are now within 900 points of first-placed Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings.

Wimbledon champions Cash and Glasspool are riding a 21-match winning streak into the Cincinnati quarter-finals, having surpassed Arevalo and Pavic in the Live Rankings and become the first team to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals. They next face sixth seeds Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, who lead their Lexus ATP Head2Head series 2-0.

Arevalo and Pavic will continue their Cincinnati title defence against Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski, who moved past Sadio Doumbia and Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 7-6(3). The British pair, who are chasing their first team trophy of the season, let slip four championship points to countrymen Cash and Glasspool in the Toronto final last week.

In other doubles action on Thursday in Cincinnati, Francisco Cabral and Lucas Miedler upset eighth seeds Hugo Nys and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 to set a quarter-final meeting with singles stars Lorenzo Musetti and Lorenzo Sonego. The Italians advanced to the last eight after Jiri Lehecka and Jakub Mensik withdrew prior to their second-round clash.