There is guaranteed to be a British player in the Wimbledon’s men’s doubles final after Neal Skupski and Henry Patten both claimed victories with their respective partners to set up a meeting in the last four.
Skupski and New Zealand‘s Michael Venus beat German pair Constantin Frantzen and Hendrik Jebens 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-1) in their quarter-final.
Patten and Harri Heliovaara of Finland fought back from a set down to clinch a 4-6 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (10-7) win over El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic of Croatia.
Skupski won the title last year with Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and has combined well with Venus, who usually plays with Jamie Murray.
Skupski and Venus won the warm-up events at Queen’s and Eastbourne and maintained their winning streak with victory in 91 minutes on court 12.
Patten, meanwhile, is through to the latter stages of a Grand Slam for the first time after he and Heliovaara knocked out the fourth seeds.
Willis and Barnett into quarter-finals
In the mixed doubles, British duo Marcus Willis and Alicia Barnett booked their place in the quarter-finals after a 2-6 6-3 11-9 win over American pair Marcus Willis and Katie Volynets.
Willis, 33, is back at Wimbledon for the first time since 2017 having come out of retirement two years ago.
He briefly became one of the biggest stories of the 2016 Championship when, despite being ranked 772 in the world, he met Roger Federer in the first round of the singles after coming through qualifying.
“It’s very different now. Obviously I was a singles player back then. I’ve retired, come back and just had a really positive nearly two years back,” Willis said.
“I still pinch myself at the ranking I am. We’re playing Wimbledon quarter-finals. It’s just amazing. I’m just making sure I’m trying to go out there and enjoy it.”
Elsewhere, Jamie Murray and Taylor Townsend of the United States progressed to the last eight with a 6-7 (3-7) 6-1 10-5 success over Germany‘s Kevin Krawietz and Russian partner Alexandra Panova.
Neal Skupski made it two victories in a day when he and American partner Desirae Krawczyk knocked out France‘s Fabrice Martin and Cristina Bucsa of Spain courtesy of a 6-3 6-3 win.
British pair Heather Watson and Joe Salisbury exited the tournament, though, following a 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 defeat at the hands of Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei and Poland‘s Jan Zielinski.
BBC
