Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares came back from one set down to beat defending champions and this year’s alternates Henri Kontinen and John Peers 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 10-3 at the Nitto ATP Finals in London winning the Doubles tournament of the Group Llodra/Santoro with a perfect 3-0 record.
Murray and Soares won 74 % of his service points to take the win after 87 minutes and qualify for their third consecutive semifinal at the ATP Finals. They won three doubles titles in Cincinnati, Washington and Acapulco.
Kontinen and Peers, who won the past two editions in 2017 and 2018 becoming the first back-to-back ATP Finals champions since Mike and Bob Bryan in 2003 and 2004, were making their third consecutive appearance at the ATP Finals as alternates replacing Nikola Mektic and Alexandra Peya. Austrian player Peya pulled out of the tournament due to an elbow injury.
Kontinen and Peers got the first break in the third game in the third game and held their service games before getting their double break on a deciding point at 5-3 at deuce.
Both teams failed to convert their break points setting up a tie-break. Murray and Soares reeled off five points from 2-3 down to win the tie-break 7-3. Muray and Soares raced out to a 5-1 lead in the Match Tie-Break before claiming their first match point after 1 hour and 27 minutes.
Australian Open finalist and first-time qualifiers Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah beat Raven Klaasen from South Africa and Michael Venus from New Zealand 6-3 7-6 (7-5) to secure their spot in the semifinal with a 2-1 record.
Cabal and Farah broke serve in the third game, as Klaasen hit a backhand volley. The Colombians got the double break at 30 to close out the first set 6-3 after 23 minutes.
Klaasen and Venus reeled off 11 points from 0-1 to break Cabal at love in the fourth game for 3-1. Cabal and Farah broke back in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3, when Venus made a double fault. Klaasen came back from 0-30 down at 5-6 to force the second set to the tie-break.
Klaasen and Venus saved four break points, but Cabal converted the fifth chance with an ace to claim the tie-break 7-5. Cabal and Farah won 82 % of his first serve points and converted three of his four break points.
Cabal and Farah won their first Masters 1000 titles in Rome and reached four finals in 2018.
