Fifth seeds Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic edged past Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 7-6 (7-5) 6-0 after 1 hour and 21 minutes to seal the first qualifying spot in the semifinals in the Mike Bryan doubles Group at the Nitto ATP Finals at the O2 Arena in London ahead of Krawietz and Mies are tied with a 1-1 record.
The first set went on serve with no breaks en route to the tie-break. Ram and Salisbury saved two consecutive set point, but Koolhof and Mektic converted their third chance to win the tie-break 7-5.
Koolhof and Salisbury earned three breaks to take a bagel win in the second set.
“No one expected it to be 6-0 in the second set. We played really well in the first set, so the only thing we wanted to do was to keep the level. We were really pushing ourselves to do that. We had a good start in the second set, and somehow this score happened somehow. The first set was really close and then the second set… It’s not really realistic, but we will take it”, said Mektic. Mektic and Koolhof started the tournament with a 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) 10-7 win over two-time Roland Garros champions Andreas Mies and Kevin Krawietz.
