They say that Montreal is the Paris of North America, and French duo Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut certainly made it their home this week. Herbert and Mahut claimed their ninth title together, edging Rohan Bopanna and Ivan Dodig 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 on Sunday at the Coupe Rogers. The fifth seeds improved to 20-8 this season after one hour and 22 minutes, firing four aces and notching 88 per cent of first serve points. It was the fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown for the French duo, all coming at different tournaments. Last year, they prevailed in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo, and earlier this year they lifted the trophy in Rome. "It was a hard match against...
Rohan Bopanna and Ivan Dodig saved two match points on Saturday at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal to reach their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final as a team. The Indian/Croatian pairing hit 10 aces to advance 4-6, 7-6(8), 11-9 against South African Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram of the U.S. Klaasen/Ram, who were looking to make their second Masters 1000 title match (Indian Wells), held match points at 7/6 and 8/7 in the second-set tie-break, but Bopanna/Dodig won the final three points to force the Match Tie-break. [ALSO LIKE] Bopanna/Dodig are playing together for only the second time. They reached the semi-finals of the Aegon Championships at The Queen's Club in June. Dodig, partnering with Marcelo Melo, won...
Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram advanced to their second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final of the season on Friday, beating Frenchmen Fabrice Martin and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 5-7, 7-5, 10-8 at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal. The South African and American pairing hit 10 aces and claimed 87 per cent of their first-serve points to move into the last four. They also reached the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where they won their first Masters 1000 title (d. Kubot/Melo). [ALSO LIKE] The sixth seeds will next face Indian Rohan Bopanna and Croatian Ivan Dodig, who beat another French team in Gael Monfils and Benoit Paire 6-2, 7-5. Bopanna/Dodig saved three of four break points to advance...
Before the end of last year, Poland's Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo of Brazil had played together only two times. But those two weeks in Vienna and the results they produced – two Erste Bank Open 500 titles and an 8-0 record – had convinced the pairing that they might have a future successful partnership between them. They acted on those ideas this year, joining forces in January, and the results have been almost as perfect. During their first seven months as a team, Kubot and Melo posted a 36-10 record and captured five tour-level titles, including Wimbledon, Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Ricoh Open in 's-Hertogenbosch and two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns – the Mutua Madrid Open...
The Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London kicked into high gear on Sunday in Washington, as the top two teams in 2017 clashed for the Citi Open crown. After a one-hour and 33-minute battle, it was top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers taking the title 7-6(5), 6-4 over No. 2 pairing Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo. The Finnish-Aussie duo came up clutch in the big moments, firing 11 aces and saving both break points faced. "Every tournament we play, we feel more comfortable out there playing with each other," said Kontinen. "We're one of the contenders in every tournament. There are a lot of good teams out there. Kubot and Melo are exceptional too. We just have to play...
