Doubles Take: Top seeds on track for calendar Slam

The doubles draws are winding down at the French Open: Doubles Take has your daily look at what’s happening.

As expected, top seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic were tested in their round-of-16 match against Nicole Melichar and Kveta Peschke. The Australian Open champions escaped with a 7-5 third-set win to reach their second consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Andrea Hlavackova and Barbora Strycova, the second seeds, join them in the final eight after posting a straight-sets win. On the men’s side, 2016 champions Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez are the first team through to the semifinals after defeating Henri Kontinen and John Peers in a third-set tiebreak.

Here are several matches to keep an eye on Tuesday:

Andreja Klepac/Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (3) vs. Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova (6): Klepac and Martinez Sanchez have lived up to their billing as the third seeds, with their most impressive win coming in the prior round against Venus and Serena Williams. The young Czech team of Krejcikova and Siniakova didn’t have a good clay-court season coming into the French Open, but appears to have put any recent struggles behind them. Siniakova has experience in Grand Slams, having reached the US Open doubles final last year, which could make the difference in this match.

Oliver Marach/Mate Pavic (2) vs. Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah (5): Back in January, both teams made a surprise run to the Australian Open final, and it was Marach and Pavic who came out on top.

Since then, each duo has continued to build upon that success and is playing the best tennis of their careers. It’s a match-up easily worthy of a final, if not for the luck of the draw. This has the potential to be the men’s doubles match of the tournament.

Mate Pavic/Gabriela Dabrowski (1) vs. Santiago Gonzalez/Katarina Srebotnik: Pavic and Dabrowski are one round away from a second consecutive Grand Slam final. Standing in their way, though, is a pair of veterans in Gonzalez and Srebotnik, who’ve each had success in mixed doubles in the past. In fact, three of Srebotnik’s five career mixed titles have come in Paris. It could be a long day for the top seeds.

Follow Van on Twitter: @Van_Sias