• In Saturday’s doubles championship, French No. 5 seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut take on unseeded Ravan Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of the U.S.

• Herbert and Mahut enter on a 9-match winning streak after capturing their maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown in Indian Wells (d. Pospisil/Sock).

• Klaasen and Ram are appearing in their third career ATP World Tour final together (1-1), first this season. Last year they captured the grass court title in Halle (d. Bopanna/Mergea) in their second tournament together and were finalists in Kuala Lumpur in October

• Herbert/Mahut defeated Marach/Thiem 76(3) 64 in 1R, Qureshi/Simon 62 63 in 2R, Chardy/Martin 67(5) 76(5) 10-7 in QF and [4] Bryan/Bryan 63 63 in SF to reach first Miami final.

• They are trying to become first French team to win Miami doubles title in tournament’s 32-year history and first team to win Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back since Bryan brothers in 2014. 

• Frenchmen have 41-15 career record on ATP World Tour (10-2 in ‘16) and on 9-match winning streak

• Reigning US Open champions (d. M. Lopez/Granollers, Rojer/Tecau, Inglot/Lindstedt and J. Murray/Peers) won ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells two weeks ago (d. Pospisil/Sock) and Queen’s Club last season (d. Matkowski/Zimonjic).

• Appearing in 7th career final together (3-3). Advanced to 2015 Australian Open final (d. Benneteau/Roger-Vasselin and Dodig/Melo, l. to Bolelli/Fognini). Also reached finals in 2015 at ’s-Hertogenbosch (l. to Karlovic/Kubot) and Metz (l. to Kubot/Roger-Vasselin).

• World No. 12 Herbert is 4-3 lifetime in finals (1-0 in ATP Masters 1000 finals) and World No. 7 Mahut is 12-10 in finals (1-1 in ATP Masters 1000 finals), winning title last month in Rotterdam w/Pospisil (d. Petzschner/Peya).

• Klaasen/Ram defeated [3] J. Murray/Soares 36 63 10-7 in 1R, Cilic/Draganja 76(10) 60 in 2R, Petzschner/Peya 76(5) 57 10-7 in QF and Huey/Mirnyi 64 62 in SF to reach first Miami final

• The South African, American duo have a 25-16 career record together, including 9-5 this season. Prior to Miami, they lost 1R matches in straight sets in Delray Beach, Acapulco and Indian Wells. Their best results this year are SF in Chennai and QF at Australian Open (l. to eventual champs J. Murray/Soares)

• They are appearing in their third final together (1-1). Last season they won their first ATP World Tour title together in Halle and reached the final in Kuala Lumpur later in season.

• World No. 20 Klaasen has a 9-6 career record in doubles finals and World No. 36 Ram has an 8-4  record in finals. This is Klaasen’s second career ATP Masters 1000 final. He won in Shanghai last October (w/Melo). Ram is making his debut in an ATP Masters 1000 final.

EMIRATES ATP DOUBLES TEAM RANKINGS: Herbert/Mahut will move from 3 to No. 2 regardless of final outcome in the next Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings.

Kei Nishikori is through to the final of the Miami Open presented by Itau. The Japanese, who had survived five match points in his quarter-final win, raised his level a day later to down No. 24 seed Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 7-5.

“Serves, returns, everything worked well,” Nishikori said. “I tried to be aggressive and won a lot of points at the net as well.”

An efficient Nishikori only dropped serve once and broke Kyrgios four times in reaching his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final (2014 Madrid) in 84 minutes. The fleet-footed baseliner improved his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Kyrgios to 2-0 (2015 Shanghai). The big-hitting Aussie had not dropped a set en route to his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final.

“He’s just playing such good tennis,” Kyrgios said. “I know his game plan when he plays me, he plays so aggressively. He doesn’t let me dictate points. I was really looking for answers. I was trying to serve and volley a couple of times. But he’s playing great tennis.

“He puts so much behind the ball. He’s not just pushing it back. He can just hit a winner from anywhere. He moves really well and returns well. He’s too good.”

In the final, Nishikori will face top seed Novak Djokovic, who has won six of their eight tour-level meetings. The No. 6 seed has lost to the Serb in their past five matches, but did score an epic upset at the 2014 US Open, winning 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-3.

“I have nothing to lose in the final, so I hope to play another good match,” said Nishikori.

French wild card Alexandre Sidorenko hit a stunning no-look passing shot during his quarter-final match against Tobias Kamke on Friday at the St. Brieuc Challenger, using the momentum to win the match and reach his first ATP Challenger Tour semi-final in seven years.

Down set point in the opening set, Kamke hit a lob that left Sidorenko scrambling back to the baseline. But the Frenchman responded by hitting a no-look, over-the-shoulder passing shot that left the crowd roaring in approval. The World No. 379 went on to prevail over Kamke, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic survived his sternest test yet this tournament as he defeated David Goffin 7-6(5), 6-4 on Friday to reach the final at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

The Serb will play for a third successive Miami crown and a record 28th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy when he faces either Kei Nishikori or Nick Kyrgios in Sunday’s final at Crandon Park.

“It was windy, it was humid, it was warm,” Djokovic said. “It was like everything was thrown out there. And to overcome those obstacles and conditions was something that I’m proud of. I managed to stay tough in the right moments.”

The 28-year-old Djokovic is through to his seventh Miami final and is bidding to tie Andre Agassi’s record of six titles. It would be a first three-peat in Miami for the Belgrade native, who won the title in 2007 (d. Canas), 2011 (d. Nadal), 2012 (d. Murray), 2014 (d. Nadal) and 2015 (d. Murray).

Djokovic was made to cover every inch of the court as the relentless Goffin pushed him to the limit in testing conditions in Miami. The Serb was under pressure from the offset, saving three break points in his opening service games.

“He plays very clean,” Djokovic said of Goffin. “It’s a tennis that is beautiful to watch. Also, I think he improved his serve. I had difficulty reading it. It’s not as powerful as maybe some other guys’, but it’s very precise and efficient. Also, he backs it up with a very efficient first shot after the serve.

“Physically, it was a great battle, with lots of exchanges from the baseline.”

Having saved two break points in the sixth game, Goffin broke Djokovic in the following game for a 4-3 lead. However, as he has been wont to do in the past 12 months, Djokovic immediately broke back. In 2015, Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers showed that Djokovic was the lead performer on the ATP World Tour as he won a commanding 38 per cent of his return games immediately after getting broken.

More On Infosys ATP Scores & Stats

Djokovic ultimately clinched the opener in the tie-break, but Goffin was not deterred. With Djokovic feeling the heat, Goffin continued to press and was thwarted on a break point chance in the fourth game. But crucial unforced errors in the seventh game proved to Goffin’s undoing. Djokovic took his chance to break and went on to close out victory in two hours and five minutes. Goffin was left ruing a conversion rate of seven from 17 points at the net, including pivotal misses in the tie-break. 

The 25-year-old Goffin has been in a rich vein of form, backing up his run to his first Masters 1000 semi-final in Indian Wells, where he beat Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic before falling to Milos Raonic. He dropped to a 2-26 record against Top 10 opponents.

“Against Djokovic, you have to make every point,” Goffin said. “You have to go for the shot on every point. He doesn’t give you anything, so you have to win it. It’s tough, because if you are not there for a few seconds, you lose the game.

“I’ve worked a lot in practice, so maybe that’s why it’s paying off during the match. But for the next tournament and for the rest of this season, of course my confidence will be really high.”

The Belgian is projected to reach a career-high World No. 13 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday, having started March at No. 18.