Henri Kontinen and John Peers will return to defend their title this November at The O2 after becoming the second team to qualify for the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals. They clinched their place in the elite eight-team field by reaching the US Open quarter-finals Monday with victory over Juan Sebastian Cabal and Leonardo Mayer.

The Finnish-Australian duo kicked off their 2017 campaign with the Australian Open crown (d. Bryans) and last month won the ATP World Tour 500 title at the Citi Open, where they defeated Emirates ATP Doubles Race to London leaders Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo. Kubot and Melo had become the first team to qualify for the season-ending tournament following their triumph at Wimbledon.

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Kontinen and Peers made an impressive finish to 2016, capping their debut season on a 10-match winning streak. After claiming their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the Rolex Paris Masters, they went undefeated en route to the season finale title (d. Klaasen/Ram).

The 27-year-old Kontinen, who ascended to the No. 1 Emirates ATP Doubles Ranking in April, will be making his second appearance at The O2. Peers, 29, will be making his third; he first qualified in 2015 with Jamie Murray. 

A LOOK BACK

Challenger de Quito (Quito, Ecuador): Chilean Nicolas Jarry collected his second ATP Challenger Tour title of the season, his second on South American soil after earlier winning the title in Medellin, Colombia. The 21-year-old #NextGen ATP player disposed of fifth seed Gerald Melzer 6-3, 6-2 to claim the title, having earlier fought back from a set and a break down to oust top seed Victor Estrella Burgos in the semi-finals. Photographer Jorge Anhalzer’s framed scenic photograph depicting Quito and Ecuardor from the sky was a trophy with a difference for the champion. It improved his record to 13-2 in Challengers since qualifying for his first Wimbledon in July and continues a meteoric rise up the Emirates ATP Rankings. He was outside the Top 200 in early June and is projected to climb to a career-high spot in the Top 120.

#ChallengerUIO @NicoJarry festeja el título con los niños pic.twitter.com/sztRO9zJsi

— Challenger de Quito (@Challenger_UIO) September 3, 2017

Torneo Citta di Como (Como, Italy): Pedro Sousa certainly wasn’t taking the easy route to his third straight ATP Challenger Tour final. The Portuguese World No. 127 rallied from a set down in three of his five matches in Como, including a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 triumph over home hope and top seed Marco Cecchinato in the final. The win marked his third title of the season having also won in Francavilla, Italy and Liberec, Czech Republic. His third final in a row takes him to a 10-match winning streak and a 14-1 match record since mid-July. Sousa is fast closing on a Top 100 debut.

Hot Shot for the title! Pedro Sousa claims his third #ATPChallenger ? of 2017 with a 16 62 64 win over Cecchinato in Como. Win streak ➡️ 10 pic.twitter.com/yB4Jk7znVD

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) September 3, 2017

 A LOOK AHEAD

Five Challenger events will take place this week, headed by the $150,000 Aon Open Challenger in Genova, Italy. The clay-court event, held since 2003, last year saw Jerzy Janowicz defeat defending champion Nicolas Almagro for the title. The honour roll of prior champions features a host of top ATP World Tour players – Albert Ramos Vinolas, Dustin Brown, Albert Montanes, Martin Klizan and Fabio Fognini. German World No. 49 Jan-Lennard Struff heads the field with two further players in the Top 60 entered – Czech Jiri Vesely and Argentine Argentine Delbonis. #NextGenATP home hope Matteo Berrettini will join former Top 20 compatriot Andreas Seppi in the draw.

Former World No. 9 Almagro will play on home soil this week as top seed at the $75,000 Copa Sevilla in Spain. Defending champion and #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud is seeded third. Spaniard Robert Carbelles Baena will look to continue his hot streak as the No. 2 seed. The 24 year old claimed his second Challenger title in four week in late August, prevailing in Manerbio, Italy. #NextGenATP Spaniard and Boys’ Singles champion at Wimbledon, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, is also entered and will look for inspiration to current World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, who picked up his first ATP points at the Copa Sevilla as a 15 year old.

Dominican veteran Victor Estrella Burgos will look to claim his eighth Challenger title when he starts as top seed at the $50,000 Milo Open in Bogota, Colombia this week. The 37 year old leads the seedings ahead of former World No. 28 and home hope Santiago Giraldo and #NextGenATP Austrian Sebastian Ofner. Sunday’s Challenger de Quito champion Nicolas Jarry is seeded fourth.

Another Challenger champion from Sunday, Pedro Sousa, will look to go back-to-back when he begins the $50,000 Tean International Challenger at Alphen, in the Netherlands. The Portuguese is seeded second behind Argentine former World No. 37 Carlos Berlocq for the claycourt event, which has been held since 1996.

Swiss World No. 94 Henri Laaksonen and Japan’s former World No. 47 Go Soeda are the top two seeds for the $50,000 International Challenger Zhangjiagang, in China. #NextGenATP South Korean Duckhee Lee will also contest the inaugural hard-court tournament.

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Former champions Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro are back at work on Labor Day in fourth-round matches at the 2017 US Open on Monday.

Nadal returns to Arthur Ashe Stadium against unseeded Alexandr Dolgopolov. The No. 1 seed is bidding for his seventh US Open quarter-final appearance and first since winning the 2013 title. Dolgopolov is 1-8 against players ranked No. 1, posting his lone win over Nadal in a final-set tie-break at 2014 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells. Though he lost his first five matches and 10 sets against Nadal, Dolgopolov has beaten the Spaniard in two of their past three meetings, adding a grass-court win at 2015 London/Queen’s Club.

After improving to 17-0 against Mikhail Youzhny and 13-0 against Feliciano Lopez, Federer takes an 11-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head advantage into his meeting with Philipp Kohlschreiber. Federer’s win over Lopez lifted his record in Arthur Ashe Stadium night matches to 31-1. Kohlschreiber entered the US Open without a hard-court match since March 26 at ATP Masters 1000 Miami. He received the No. 33 seed and moved to the top half of the draw after No. 2 seed Andy Murray withdrew. Kohlschreiber has not dropped a set, holding in 37 of 38 service games and saving 16 of 17 break points against three players ranked outside the Top 100. The German is 1-34 against Top 3 opponents (d. No. 2 Nadal in 2012 Halle QF) and 1-8 in fourth-round matches at Grand Slams (d. Baker at 2012 Wimbledon).

Andrey Rublev, 19, hopes to become the youngest US Open quarter-finalist since Andy Roddick in 2001 when he faces No. 9 seed David Goffin on Louis Armstrong Stadium. The Russian teenager is 12-4 in his last 16 tour-level matches, breaking into the Top 100 on June 26 after reaching his first quarter-final at Halle and cracking the Top 50 on July 24 after winning his first title at Umag. Like Rublev, Goffin is seeking his first US Open quarter-final.

Del Potro meets World No. 8 Dominic Thiem on Grandstand in a rematch of the 2016 US Open fourth round. The 2009 champion advanced last year when Thiem retired in the second set with a right knee injury. Del Potro is 0-6 versus Top 8 opponents this season after going 5-4 against them in 2016. Thiem, who celebrated his 24th birthday on Sunday, is one of two men’s players to reach the fourth round at all four Grand Slam events in 2017 (also Nadal). 

If this was the best match of Sam Querrey’s career, the rest of the US Open field better take notice. The 17th seed was at his ruthless best on Sunday night, turning in a masterclass performance under the lights on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Querrey sprinted past Mischa Zverev 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in just one hour and 16 minutes, blitzing his 30 year old opponent with a barrage of rifled groundstrokes and dizzying agility. It was the fastest match of the tournament thus far. He struck 55 winners, including 18 aces, and just eight unforced errors.

With the win, Querrey will become the No. 1 American in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since July 2013. He is the first player from the U.S. to reach the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows since both Andy Roddick and John Isner did so in 2011.

“I really couldn’t have done anything better out there tonight, I was in the zone,” Querrey told ESPN in his on-court interview. “It was my first time playing out here at night, so I wanted to make the most of it.

“I was a little nervous at first, but I came out playing hot. Tennis is a game of momentum and once I broke early, I felt like I was off to the races. I felt comfortable three minutes into the match and that was the key.”

As the last American man remaining, Querrey embraced the home atmosphere in his first Ashe night session appearance. Zverev’s net attacking gameplan was effective in defeating John Isner on Friday, but the California native had an answer for the German with nearly every approach, passing him early and often. His execution of forehand passes was simply stunning.

Querrey’s sharp movement stifled Zverev at the net throughout the encounter and a 24-minute first set would set the tone. The American struck 20 winners and just five unforced errors in the opener, breaking for 2-0 with a backhand pass and refusing to look back from there. Another break would secure the first set and he would drop just three games from there, breaking four more times to cross the finish line after 76 minutes.

Querrey will next face Kevin Anderson with a coveted semi-final spot on the line. He owns an 8-6 edge in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, having split a pair of meetings this year. Querrey prevailed in a five-set thriller in the Wimbledon fourth round, before Anderson exacted revenge at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Montreal.

Kevin Anderson has found a new home at the US Open, blasting into the quarter-finals for the second time in three years.

The 6’8″ South African is flying under the radar as he secured his place in the last eight with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4 victory over Paolo Lorenzi on Sunday. Anderson needed two hours and 57 minutes to dispatch the Italian veteran, attacking early and often from the baseline behind 54 winners, including 18 aces.

Anderson is surging towards a Top 20 return in the Emirates ATP Rankings after notching a trio of straight-set wins to open the tournament and a rather straightforward victory over Lorenzi. He extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head edge over the World No. 40 to 4-0, having most recently triumphed on the clay of Geneva earlier this year.

One break was all that was needed to capture both the first and second sets on Louis Armstrong Stadium. A forehand winner secured the two-set lead for the South African, but that very stroke let him down in the third set tie-break, as an unforced error pushed wide gave new life to Lorenzi. Anderson would stay the course in the fourth set, despite falling down a break at 3-2. He broke right back and reeled off four of the last five games to prevail after just under three hours.

Anderson is playing arguably the best tennis of his career in recent months, having reached the final in Washington and quarter-finals in Montreal on the heels of a Round of 16 finish at Wimbledon. It was at the All England Club that the 31 year old succumbed to Sam Querrey in five sets and a rematch could be in the cards at Flushing Meadows. Querrey faces Mischa Zverev in Sunday’s night session with a spot opposite Anderson on the line.