Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Gilles Simon dealt a tough loss to Barclays ATP World Tour Finals hopefuls Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin, saving two match points en route to a 1-6, 6-4, 13/11 win in the first round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 on Wednesday. Qureshi/Simon saved match points down 9/8 and 11/10 in the Match Tie-break, then won the final three points to upset the recent Shenzhen Open finalists.
While Marach/Martin, who are 10th in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, failed to make up ground on No. 8 Henri Kontinen and John Peers, Kontinen and Peers were in turn unable to increase their 605-point lead. The Finnish/Australian duo was beaten by 6-7(5), 6-3, 14-12 by Robert Lindstedt and Alexander Peya. Lindstedt/Peya saved four match points in the Match Tie-break.
No. 2 seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram avoided the upset, taking down Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak 6-4, 6-2. The Chengdu Open winners are No. 6 in the year-to-date rankings.
Marcel Granollers and Marcin Matkowski are into the semi-finals after edging No. 3 seeds Dominic Inglot and Jean-Julien Rojer 7-6(6), 3-6, 10-7.