Henri Kontinen and John Peers defeated Klaasen/Ram in their round-robin match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Wednesday. Watch live matches at tennistv.com. Photo: Peter Staples / ATP World Tour.
Henri Kontinen and John Peers look more and more like the doubles team to beat this week at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. The fifth seeds improved to 2-0 on Wednesday, advancing past Raven Klaasen/Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-4 in 64 minutes. Kontinen/Peers saved all three break points against the South African/American pairing and remained perfect on serve at the season finale, having held all 20 service games during their two round-robin matches at The O2. The Finnish/Australian team has now won its past seven matches, dating back to its maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title run earlier this month at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. The remainder of the week could be promising as well....
By John Peers Our 2016 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals has certainly gotten off to a good start. We've already beaten new World No. 1 Andy Murray in the all-important “Gong Challenge”. Standing on centre court, Murray tossed the ball up six times but couldn't hit the 14-inch gong, which sat about 20 metres away in the stands. (For the record, he was using someone else's racquet). My doubles partner, Henri Kontinen, had also tried to peg the gong six times but he, too, couldn't connect. But I grabbed my Prince racquet, tossed the ball up and hit the gong on my first attempt. I'll admit, it was luck, but I won't be testing that theory. I've never done it since...
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...