ATP Tour

Top seeds Harrison/Skupski ease through Shanghai opener

Top seeds Christian Harrison and Neal Skupski made a winning return to Tour Friday with a strong opening-round doubles win at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Playing their first tournament since winning the US Open, the American-British duo fired 12 aces and claimed a late break in the second set to defeat Romain Arneodo and Santiago Gonzalez 7-6(3), 6-4.

“We haven't played since the US Open together, so it's been a few weeks. But it's nice to be back on the court together,” Skupski said. “We had a very good tie-break in the first, and then we got that all-important break in the second at 4-all, and then Christian held very well.

“Conditions were a little bit quick, which took time to get used to… I thought it was a solid match. It's never easy, first round of a Masters. It can always be tricky — conditions and a few nerves — but it was nice to be into round two now.”

The duo had expected to play Beijing but ultimately sat out the ATP 500 as a precaution.

“Christian had a little bit of an issue — it wasn't an injury, just a little bit of an issue — so we thought, ‘Why not take our time and get healthy before coming into Shanghai and give everything we've got?’ But everyone's 100 per cent now and very much looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Harrison and Skupski have already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals in their first season as a team. The pair won the Australian Open and US Open but are searching for their first ATP Masters 1000 title.

In other doubles action, Ignacio Buse and Adolfo Daniel Vallejo upset sixth seeds Guido Andreozzi and Manuel Guinard 6-3, 6-7(7), 10-7. Robert Galloway and Andre Goransson were also Match Tie-break winners, defeating David Pel and Alejandro Tabilo 6-7(7), 6-3, 10-5, while third seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz downed Bart Stevens and Botic van de Zandschulp 6-7(4), 6-1, 10-4.