Dubai: The UAE’s Omar Behroozian and Iranian partner Amirvala Madanchi bowed out 1-6, 1-6 to John Peers and Henri Kontinen in their first round doubles match at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Monday.
“We were up against one of the best doubles pairs in the world, and they really didn’t allow us to get into any sort of rhythm out there,” Behroozian told Gulf News.
“They were playing too quick and we tried to vary and change certain things in our game, but I felt that we just couldn’t get into the match,” he added.
The UAE-Iran pairing just could not hold their own against the Australian Open champions as the encounter was over in just 36 minutes.
They are very professional guys and take things very seriously even when they were winning comfortably,” Madanchi reflected.
“For us, it is good to learn from these guys. It is really, really impressive to see how they play the doubles. There are no easy balls and they just go for the kill all the time,” he added.
“They move so well at the net and we are not used to that aspect of the game. We hit a return and feel that’s its good enough, but the next thing you know is that the ball has come back with such speed that is not even easy to recover,” Behroozian chipped.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals were fourth seeded Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau with a hard-fought 7-6 (2), 6-1 win over Mate Pavic and Alexander Peya while Daniel Evans and Gilles Muller teamed up to oust the pairing of Andy Murray and Nenad Zimonjic.
RESULTS
Men’s Doubles Round One
Jean-Julien Rojer/Horia Tecau bt Mate Pavic/Alexander Peya 7-6 (2), 6-1; James Cerretani/Philipp Oswald bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan/Andreas Seppi 7-5, 6-3; Henri Kontinen/John Peers bt Omar Behroozian/Amirvala Madanchi 6-1, 6-1; Daniel Evans/Gilles Muller bt Andy Murray/Nenad Zimonjic 6-1, 7-6 (2).
