Fifth seeds Henri Kontinen/John Peers made their Barclays ATP World Tour debut as a pairing a memorable one, not facing a break point in defeating fourth seeds Feliciano Lopez/Marc Lopez 6-3, 7-6(7) in one hour and 17 minutes.
Kontinen/Peers have now won 10 of their past 12 matches. They’ve won four ATP World Tour titles together this season, including their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title earlier this month at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. That victory enabled Kontinen to make his debut inside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings.
Kontinen was making his debut at The O2, while Peers was making his second consecutive appearance at the season-ending championships. Feliciano Lopez was also making his debut at The O2 while Marc Lopez, 34, won the 2012 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals crown with fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers.
[ALSO LIKE]
Although Lopez/Lopez made 88 per cent of their first serves, they still found themselves struggling to manage the aggressive returns of Kontinen/Peers in the first set. The Finnish-Aussie pair broke Feliciano Lopez to take a 3-1 lead and remained flawless in their own service games, winning 12 straight points on serve to grab an early lead.
Both players traded routine service holds in the second set to force a tie-break. A backhand volley winner from Peers gave his team a mini-break to lead 3/2, but the Aussie gave it back at 5/4 with a double fault. Kontinen/Peers were unable to convert on match points at 6/5 and 7/6, but a backhand volley from Kontinen at 8/7 wrapped up the contest.