Benoit Doppagne/Belgamag/AFP via Getty Images
Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen broke new ground on Monday at Roland Garros, where the Belgian duo reached their maiden Grand Slam semi-final as a team by downing 14th seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-4, 7-6(4).
Gille and Vliegen outhit their 14th-seeded opponents by 34 winners to 26 on the way to a 99-minute victory on Court Simonne-Mathieu. They rallied from 1-4 in the second set to force a tie-break, in which they won five of the final six points to seal their win.
The unseeded duo is chasing its third tour-level crown of the season (Pune, Estoril) in Paris this fortnight. The pair has risen five spots to ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings as a result of their run in the French capital.
Their next opponents will be Matwe Middelkoop and Andreas Mies, who ended the Roland Garros reign of 2022 winners Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer with a 7-6(6), 6-1 triumph at the clay-court major.
Middelkoop and Mies saved a set point in the 12th game en route to winning the opening set of the quarter-final clash before they accelerated through the second set for a one-hour, 55-minute victory. Middelkoop and Mies, who is a two-time Roland Garros champion, arrived in Paris with a 1-3 record for the year as a team but have not dropped a set on the way to the final four.
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