Duo looking to qualify for year-end championships in London
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 Zimonjic 7-6(3), 6-3.
Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah were unable to build on their Moscow title on Tuesday in Basel. The Colombians fell to Spaniard Marcel Granollers and American Jack Sock 6-3, 5-7, 10-5. Cabal/Farah are in 10th place in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, 495 points behind eighth-placed Treat Huey/Max Mirnyi.
In Vienna, Steve Johnson and Philipp Petzschner prevailed against Santiago Gonzalez and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-7(6), 6-2, 12-10.
Tennis star Jamie Murray is awarded an OBE by the Queen for services to his sport and charity.
World number one Angelique Kerber beat Romania’s Simona Halep 6-4 6-2 to all but book her place in the last four of the WTA Finals in Singapore.
The German, who beat Dominika Cibulkova in Monday’s opener, swept past world number four Halep in 82 minutes.
“I’m feeling very, very good here,” said Kerber.
American Madison Keys recovered from losing to Halep in her opening match to see off Cibulkova 6-1 6-4 and stay in the hunt for the semi-finals.
Two players will progress from each of the tournament’s two groups to contest the semi-finals. Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Karolina Pliskova and Garbine Muguruza are in the other.
Kerber ended Serena Williams’ 186-week stay at world number one in the wake of winning the US Open in September and her trademark precise forehand, which also helped her to the Australian Open title in January, proved too potent as Halep was forced out wide and out of contention.
Kerber played the big points especially well, converting four of five break points, compared with Halep’s return of just one break from six opportunities.
She has won only twice on her three previous appearances at the season finale and has never been beyond the group stages.
| Red Group | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Wins | Sets won-lost | Games won-lost | |
| Angelique Kerber | 2 | 4-1 | 27-21 |
| Madison Keys | 1 | 2-2 | 18-17 |
| Simona Halep | 1 | 2-2 | 18-18 |
| Dominika Cibulkova | 0 | 1-4 | 20-27 |
Kyle Edmund was forced to retire injured after just 18 minutes of his first-round match with David Ferrer at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
With Ferrer leading 3-2, the British number two was unable to continue due to what appeared to be a hip injury.
Edmund, 21, broke into the top 40 of the men’s world rankings on Monday, after reaching his first ATP Tour semi-final in Antwerp last week.
Andy Murray begins his campaign against Slovak Martin Klizan on Wednesday.
Murray could overtake Novak Djokovic as world number one if he wins the tournament in Vienna and next week’s Paris Masters.
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BBC Sport takes a look at why Svetlana Kuznetsova cut off a piece of her own plait during her WTA Finals match against Agnieszka Radwanska in Singapore.
READ MORE: Kuznetsova cuts own hair on way to win