Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Gilles Simon’s partnership at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 continues to bear fruit, as the Pakistani and the Frenchman advanced to the semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-2 performance against Robert Lindstedt and Alexander Peya on Friday.
Qureshi’s instincts at the net were well complemented by Simon’s strong returning. The pair broke serve six times to seal victory in 58 minutes. They will next face No. 2 seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram, who are sixth in the Emirates ATP Race To London.
Awaiting the winners of that match are Marcel Granollers and Marcin Matkowski, who beat Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 7-6(2), 7-5 to move into the final.
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...
Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos improved to 3-0 in ATP World Tour doubles finals this year, taking the title at the Moselle Open on Sunday. The Chilean-Argentine duo fired seven aces and saved all five break points faced to down third seeds Mate Pavic and Michael Venus 6-3, 7-6(4) in the Metz final. A rematch of the final on the clay of Gstaad in July, Peralta and Zeballos defeated their third straight seeded team to prevail. They had stormed back from a set down to upset both fourth seeds Robert Lindstedt and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and second seeds Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin earlier in the week. "We really felt great with our game today," said Zeballos. "It was a tough...
Dominic Inglot and Henri Kontinen saved a match point and captured their first ATP World Tour title together on Sunday at the St. Petersburg Open. The Brit and Fin improved to a perfect 4-0 together by prevailing against German Andre Begemann and Indian Leander Paes 4-6, 6-3, 12-10 to win the ATP World Tour 250 doubles crown. The comeback in the final marked the third match of the tournament in which Inglot/Kontinen fought back from a set down. They cut their margins especially close against Begemann/Paes, who had not dropped a set before Sunday and were playing in their second ATP World Tour final of the season after falling at the Winston-Salem Open in August to Kontinen and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Begemann/Paes...