Finn Reynolds and Roy Stepanov have continued their run in Telavi by winning their doubles quarter-final against the fourth seeds, Grigoriy Lomakin and Ilya Snitari, in a match that was so close it needed three tie-breaks. Reynolds and Stepanov had to come back from 30-40 to win the first game, and Lomakin and Snitari had to do the same in the second. Reynolds and Stepanov won their next two games to love, but got broken in the seventh before taking Lomakin and Snitari to 15-40 in the eighth. The seeded pair recovered to hold their serve and, even though Reynolds and Stepanov won the next game, it meant that Lomakin and Snitari were serving for the set.
Instead, they got broken to love, and the next two games saw the receiving pair win only one point. Reynolds and Stepanov got the first mini-break in the tie-break, and never looked back. They still had that advantage when they changed ends, and won the next three points to end the set after 51 minutes. There were deuces in the third, fourth and fifth games of the second set, but the servers were able to win the deciding point each time. The remaining games all saw comfortable holds, and that took them to a second tie-break. This one didn’t go so well for Reynolds and Stepanov as, after winning their first two points, they didn’t win another, Lomakin and Snitari taking six in a row to end the set after 56 minutes.
Reynolds and Stepanov won the opening point of the match tie-break, and got an immediate mini-break off the seeded pair. They lost the second of their second server’s points, however, and the second server from the other team won both of his. A double fault from Reynolds and Stepanov dropped them behind, but they got that mini-break back on the very next point. That server held on his second point, and the other three all won both of theirs in the next rotation. That gave Reynolds and Stepanov a match point, and they were able to break the other pair’s next serve to record a great win after two hours and five minutes. The final score was 7-6 (2), 6-7 (2), 10-8.
The semi-final will be played later tonight, against Nikola Basic and Viacheslav Bielinskyi, but the latter still has a singles quarter-final to come. That’s at least another hour away, then he has to play the match AND have a break afterwards, so my guesstimated start time for the doubles semi-final is now around 2 o’clock.