Top seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares picked up their first ATP World Tour doubles title of 2017 on Saturday at Abierto Mexicano Telcel, racing to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over John Isner and Feliciano Lopez in Acapulco. 

Murray/Soares maintained control from the beginning, not facing a break point in the opening set and capturing the lone break to grab the early advantage. The second set was nearly identical, with the top seeds breaking Isner/Lopez at 4-3 and comfortably serving out the match to prevail in 62 minutes.

“We did well to win the first match this week (against Cilic/Mektic) because we were down for most of the Match Tie-break. But that’s what often happens in doubles. You squeeze through the first match and go on to win the tournament,” said Murray. “Today was a difficult match, a lot of good serving. We knew we weren’t going to get loads of chances, but we were able to take the ones we had.”

The British-Brazilian pair earned their fourth ATP World Tour doubles title as a team, having prevailed last year at the US Open, Australian Open and Apia International Sydney. They improved to 11-4 in 2017, also finishing runner-up in Sydney and recording semi-final showings at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open and Rio Open presented by Claro. Murray now has 17 ATP World Tour doubles titles and Soares has 24. Soares has enjoyed success before in Acapulco, finishing runner-up in 2011 (w/Melo) when the tournament was played on red clay. 

“I’ve played in Acapulco many times now and really like the conditions here,” said Soares. “We played some great tennis this week and now here we are with the trophy.” 

Lopez was seeking his first ATP World Tour doubles title since prevailing with Marc Lopez last year at Roland Garros, while Isner was aiming for his first doubles title since lifting the winner’s trophy with Jack Sock last October at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

Murray/Soares receive 500 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and split a cheque for $96,730. Isner/Lopez earn 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and split $47,360.

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Ball dogs, the hit of the 2016 Brasil Open, returned to the ATP World Tour 250 tournament on Saturday to chase more fuzzy yellow balls. Cindy, Nanda, Pretinha, Mia, Arlete and Ovelha dashed around the red clay in Sao Paulo as Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner and Brazilian coach Joao Zwetsch, who works with Thiago Monteiro and Thomaz Bellucci, played a few points and posed for photos with the shelter dogs.

“It was pretty fun, super cool with the dogs, really nice experience,” Demoliner said.

The Brasil Open and tournament sponsor PremieR Pet brought back the crowd-pleasing activity for fans and for the pooches. All of last year’s ball dogs were adopted, and tournament officials hope this year’s dogs will be just as lucky and that the activity will help raise awareness for all pets without homes.

Who let the dogs out? This year’s ball dog helpers came from two local non-profit dog shelters, Project Second Chance (Proyecto Segunda Chance) and Dogs Without Owners (Cão Sem Dono).

Demoliner, though, thinks the ball dogs might need a little more practice before taking the court for some primetime ATP World Tour action. “I think they need to improve a little bit because if they put dogs in a real match… we will have a lot of let calls,” he said before laughing. “But I think it was really nice to do this thing today.”

Pablo Cuevas will go for a record third consecutive Brasil Open title on Sunday. The 31-year-old right-hander dismissed top seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-3, 7-6(2) on Saturday in Sao Paulo to give himself a chance for a three-peat. The third-seeded Cuevas won 82 per cent of his first-serve points and feasted on Carreno Busta’s second serves, taking 70 per cent of those points.

Since the first edition of the Brasil Open, in 2001, no player has won back-to-back-to-back titles at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament. Spaniard Nicolas Almagro won back-to-back crowns in 2011-2012 but fell in the quarter-finals to David Nalbandian in 2013.

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Cuevas has avoided such slip-ups this week. He’ll try to win his sixth career ATP World Tour title – all on clay – against second seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Cuevas leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 3-1. The Spaniard erased a match point on Saturday against Portuguese Joao Sousa to win their semi-final 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-2 on the red clay.

Sousa had the match on his racquet, serving at 5-4 in the second set. The fourth seed fell behind 0/40 but crawled back into the game and led at ad-in. But Ramos-Vinolas erased the match point with a sharp forehand up the line that Sousa netted.

The Spaniard would earn the break and take the final nine of 11 games to claim the three-hour and three-minute semi-final. Ramos-Vinolas last played in an ATP World Tour title match in October at the Chengdu Open in China (l. to Khachanov). He’ll be going for his second ATP World Tour crown after taking his maiden title last July on clay at the SkiStar Swedish Open in Bastad (d. Verdasco).

The #NextGenATP American contingent will be well-represented in Indian Wells, with Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, Stefan Kozlov and Reilly Opelka among those given main draw wild cards into the BNP Paribas Open. Pittsburgh native Bjorn Fratangelo was also awarded entry into the 96-player field.

Tiafoe, the youngest player in the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, is making his second straight appearance at the prestigious ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event. Last year, he defeated Fritz in an intriguing all-teenage first-round encounter. Fritz is also making his second successive visit to the California desert, having competed in the main draw at five Masters 1000 tournaments in 2016.

Opelka and Kozlov are making their Indian Wells debuts next week, with Kozlov also appearing in his first Masters 1000 main draw. Opelka saved two match points in defeating Jeremy Chardy in his debut at the elite level last year in Cincinnati.

Fratangelo, meanwhile, was the only player to take a set off champion Novak Djokovic in last year’s tournament, eventually falling in three sets in the second round. The 23 year old is just outside the Top 100 at No. 109 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

The world’s best will descend on Indian Wells for the BNP Paribas Open, with qualifying set to get underway on Tuesday and main draw action commencing on Thursday.

Former ATP Finals champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau ended their title drought on Saturday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The Dutch-Romanian duo rallied past Marcin Matkowski and Rohan Bopanna 4-6, 6-3, 10-3 in one hour and 20 minutes to lift the trophy, firing six aces and saving three of four break points.

Rojer and Tecau claimed their first ATP World Tour title since the 2016 Mutua Madrid Open, clinching a 13th crown in total as a team. Two years removed from their triumph at The O2 in London, the tandem are looking to hit their stride once again. They have won titles at five different ATP World Tour 500 events, also including Washington, Beijing and Valencia in 2014 and Rotterdam in 2015. Rojer and Tecau take home $157,570 in prize money and 500 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points.

For the Dutchman, it was his 22nd individual doubles title, improving to 5-3 in 500-level finals. His Romanian partner clinched his 30th individual crown and is now 6-5 in 500-level finals.

“It was a difficult match,” said Tecau. “Bopanna won here three times. He’s obviously enjoying the conditions here and served well at the beginning of the match. He was returning well, too. Made it difficult for us.

“They played a really good game in the first set to break my serve. Other than that, I think the games were pretty clean on serve. That’s why we do well. We stay calm. We stay together. We look for solutions. We kept holding our serve. That was the main focus of the second set, to hold serve.”

Bopanna and Matkowski looked to be in better form at the start, with the Indian launching a cross-court pass to grab the break for 3-2 and firing an ace to close out the first set.

In a comical moment, with Bopanna and Matkowski facing a break point at 2-1 in the second set, Rojer fired a forehand that got caught in Bopanna’s racquet. The 37 year old looked bewildered at his frame as his opponents took the decisive lead. Rojer and Tecau would eventually force a Match Tie-break, where they snatched the initial mini-break for 1-0 and never looked back, securing the title on a Tecau drive volley.

“I think we’re on the right track,” added Rojer. “I don’t know if we set such specific goals this year. I know personally, and I think Horia feels the same, I just want to get better and improve. I feel like last year was not personally one of my best years. I feel like I could have done more.

“I look forward to doing that this year. I want to improve my tennis, improve my game, improve myself, that I can be a better partner for Horia on the court. I think if I have a better version of myself, then we are also a stronger team.”

Appearing in their first tournament together, Bopanna and Matkowski split $77,140 and 300 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points. Bopanna, who was seeking his fourth Dubai title with a fourth different partner (2012 w/Bhupathi, 2014 w/Qureshi, 2015 w/Nestor), was bidding for his 16th ATP World Tour title. Matkowski, meanwhile, was eyeing his 19th crown.