Third seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram took a positive step towards London on Tuesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel. Klaasen/Ram beat Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta and Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-2, 6-4 to move into the Basel quarter-finals. The South African/American pairing are currently in sixth place in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, 380 points ahead of seventh-placed Henri Kontinen and John Peers. The top eight doubles teams at the end of the season will qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held 13-20 Nov. at The O2 in London. View the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London Klaasen/Ram will meet Michael Venus and Robert Lindstedt in the quarter-finals. Lindstedt/Venus beat Ivan Dodig and Nenad...
Stan Wawrinka's losing streak at the Swiss Indoors Basel ended on Monday evening. The top seed outlasted countryman Marco Chiudinelli 6-7(1), 6-1, 6-4 in two hours and 31 minutes. Wawrinka hit 16 aces and saved four of five break points against the 35-year-old Chiudinelli, who was trying to end a four-match losing streak of his own in his hometown. Wawrinka snapped a five-match skid in Basel. The World No. 3 had fallen in the first round of the indoor tournament the past four years. He will face American Donald Young in the second round. Wawrinka leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-1 and won the last time they played, at the 2015 US Open. [ALSO LIKE] The Swiss right-hander is...
Ricardas Berankis has Milos Raonic's number on indoor hard courts. The 26-year-old Lithuanian beat Raonic again on Tuesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, knocking the second seed out of the indoor ATP World Tour 500 tournament 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Berankis, No. 91 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, broke Raonic once in the second set and twice in the third set, including when Raonic was serving to stay in the match. Berankis held for 5-3 the prior game with a rocket forehand winner down the line, which he celebrated with a “Come on!” and a shake of the fist. The qualifier brought the same energy to Raonic's service game. Berankis went up 30/40 and clinched the second Top 10 win of...
Barclays ATP World Tour Finals contender Dominic Thiem swept into the Erste Bank Open 500 second round on Tuesday at the expense of his Austrian compatriot, wild card Gerald Melzer, 6-0, 6-3 in 63 minutes. Thiem, who has won four ATP World Tour titles from six finals this year, is currently No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Race To London with three spots left up for grabs at the season finale, to be held at The O2 in London from 13-20 November. The third seed won the first seven games, and required just 21 minutes to wrap up the first set. He broke to love for a 5-3 lead in the second set, then recovered from 15/40 when serving for...
Top seeds Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer advanced to the quarter-finals of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Monday with a 6-3, 3-6, 10-3 win against Argentines Federico Delbonis and Guido Pella. Tecau/Rojer hadn't played together since their fourth-round match at the US Open because Tecau had been out with a foot injury. They won the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals last season and are trying to qualify for the year-end championships again this year. Tecau/Rojer are currently in ninth place in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, 295 points behind eighth-placed Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi. The top eight doubles teams at the end of the season will qualify for the year-end championships, to be held 13-20 Nov. at...