Top seeded French doubles pairing Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hughes Herbert has ended their dismal London campaign with a third consecutive loss.
Facing the unbeaten Henri Kontinen and Jhonathan Peers, the top seeds squandered a first set lead to go out 7-6(5), 4-6, 4-10. The loss have ended their bid to finish 2016 at the top of the Emirates rankings. That accolade has gone to Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, who will play in Saturday’s semi-finals.
Three teams have finished 1st season at No. 1:
2016 @Jamie_Murray/@BrunoSoares82
2001 @BjorkmanTennis/@ToddWoodbridge
1993 Connell/Galbraith— ATP Media Info (@ATPMediaInfo) 18 November 2016
In the second doubles match of the day, Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram defeated Marc and Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 7-6(8). Klaasen and Ram displayed a much more offensive attitude, playing much more at the net than the Spaniard duo, and this was decisive in the result of the match. In the first set, Klaasen and Ram needed to break twice their opponents in order to win 6-3. In the second set there wasn’t any breaks, so the conclusion was a tie-break. In the deciding game, Klaasen and Ram needed five match-points, but eventually won 10-8.
Due to Friday’s results, Peers and Kontinen have topped the Fleming/McEnroe Group followed by Klassen and Ram.
