Bopanna/Middelkoop Win Vienna Opener, Keep Alive Turin Hopes

Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop made a strong start to their Erste Bank Open campaign on Wednesday, defeating Argentine duo Pedro Cachin and Diego Schwartzman 6-1, 6-3. In the process, the Indian-Dutch pair kept alive its outside chance of reaching November’s Nitto ATP Finals.

Bopanna and Middelkoop are currently 15th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, and likely require deep runs this week in Vienna and next week at the Rolex Paris Masters to have a chance of qualifying for November’s season finale in Turin. Their second-round opponents in the Austrian capital will be Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni, who downed second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski 7-6(6), 7-5.

Daniel Evans and John Peers also charged into the second round in Austria by upsetting top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury at the ATP 500 event. Montreal finalists Evans and Peers converted four of seven break points en route to a dominant 59-minute win against Ram and Salisbury, the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, respectively.

Dodig/Krajicek Make Confident Start In Basel
At the Swiss Indoors Basel, Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek extended their winning streak to five with a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Matthew Ebden and Jamie Murray.

Last week’s Naples champions Dodig and Krajicek dropped just six points behind serve in their 71-minute first-round win, which lifted the Croatian-American pair one spot to ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings. Their next test in Basel is a second-round clash against top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer.

There was disappointment for another duo looking to seal a spot in Turin, Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara, after Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov downed the fourth seeds 7-5, 4-6, 10-3. Despite the loss, Glasspool and Heliovaara remain in sixth in the Race To Turin, with a seventh-placed finish required to guarantee qualification for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals.