Erlich reaches quarter-finals of men’s doubles

Yoni Erlich booked his place into the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles competition at Wimbledon on Saturday evening.

The Israeli and German Philipp Petzschner were on Court 7 for an enthralling two hours and 40 minutes as they saw off New Zealander Marcus Daniell and Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner in four sets.

Having taken the first set 6-3, they broke in the first game of the second set, and then held serve to go 2-0 up. However, a prolonged stoppage, allowing Demoliner to get treatment, saw Erlich and Petzschner seemingly lose focus and broken twice in the set, lost it to saw the match levelled up at one set all.

With the support from the sides coming vociferously for their opponents, the Israeli-German duo held firm, getting a foothold back in the match and beginning to resume control. Breaking serve midway through the third set, they held on to go back ahead in the match, two sets to one, and repeated the feat in the fourth to set off wild celebrations between then pair. The win means Erlich has reached the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time since 2010, and should he reach the semi-finals, would match his best-ever appearance at Wimbledon, which occured back in his first tournament in 2003.

In the quarter-finals, they will face either the second seeds, Croatian Ivan Dodig and Brazilian Marcelo Melo, or Great Britain’s Jonathan Marray and Dane Frederik Nielsen. They play their third round match on Monday, with the quarter-final set to be played on Tuesday.

Monday also sees the junior competitions start, which sees the number one boy’s seed, American Taylor Fritz, take on GB’s Jay Clarke.