By Philip James
Alexender Peya/Bruno Soares def Colin Fleming/Jonathan Marray 7-6(5) 6-4
Colin Fleming and Jonathan Marray lost a tantalising battle in the second round of the ATP500 Open Banc Sabadell clay court tournament in Barcelona today.
After an impressive win yesterday against fourth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, the Brits fell just short in another tough match against Alexender Peya and Bruno Soares in the quarter-finals.
Whilst not seeded, Peya and Soares are ranked 22nd and 16th respectively and are the 7th in the team rankings.
But Marray and Fleming, ranked 17th and 29th respectively themselves, have formed a promising partnership of their own this year and will be disappointed to have lost in a lengthy two-set match.
There were several positives though as they twice lead by a break in the first set and fought back from 0-3, 0-40 down in the second.
‘Flemarray’ got off to a great start, with Marray saving two break points from 30-40 before they broke Peya.
They could not consolidate the break though and the Austrian-Brazilian combo were soon level at 2-2, after breaking Fleming to love.
Two double faults from Peya helped the Brits break him for a second time, and soon Marray was serving for the set at 5-3.
But they could not serve out and the set was to be decided by a tie-break.
‘Flemarray’ got the first mini-break at 3-2 but as per the trend of the first set, it was soon back on serve.
At 5-6, Peya and Soares had their first set point and won the receiving point to take the set.
From there Peya and Soares threatened to run away with it, breaking Fleming and then having four break points at 0-40 against Marray to make it 4-0.
But ‘Flemarray’ were not about to give in, holding from 0-40 before breaking Soares and holding again to make it 3-3.
However at 4-5 Peya and Soares forced deuce on Fleming’s serve and with it a match point, which they took to win in an hour and 27 minutes.
Fleming is coming to know Soares all too well, having partnered him to win the Heineken Open in Auckland in January, but also having lost to him in the doubles quarter-finals of Indian Wells in March.