Klaasen/Venus Clinch Return To Nitto ATP Finals

Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus have qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for the second consecutive year. They are the third duo to claim a spot at the 2019 season finale, to be held 10-17 November at The O2 in London, joining Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah and Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo in the elite eight-team field.

Buy Your London Tickets

The South African and Kiwi tandem have won two ATP 500-level titles this season at the Noventi Open in Halle (d. Kubot/Melo) and at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. (d. Rojer/Tecau). The pair also reached the finals of the ASB Classic in Auckland (l. to McLachlan/Struff) and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (l. to Cabal/Farah).

Last year at the season finale, which has been held at The O2 since 2009, Klaasen and Venus went 1-2 in round-robin play. Klaasen previously qualified with Rajeev Ram on two occasions (2016-17), highlighted by a run to the 2017 final (l. to Kontinen/Peers). Venus teamed up with good friend Ryan Harrison on his debut in 2017.

Klaasen and Venus clinched their spot Thursday night when Marcus Daniell and Philipp Oswald edged Nitto ATP Finals hopefuls Henri Kontinen and John Peers 7-6(2), 7-6(5) in the Erste Bank Open quarter-finals. Kontinen and Peers, who won the season finale in 2016-17, are looking to return to The O2 for a fourth straight year and are currently eighth in the ATP Doubles Race To London.

Ram/Salisbury Continue London Push In Vienna; Top Seeds Upset in Basel
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury are trying to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in their debut season as a team. And the American-British duo continued on that trajectory on Thursday, as the fourth seeds beat qualifiers Luke Bambridge and Ben McLachlan 7-5, 6-4 at the Erste Bank Open. Ram and Salisbury, who are in seventh place in the ATP Doubles Race To London, will next face unseeded duo Daniell and Oswald.

In the other Vienna semi-final, top seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, who defeated Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov 6-0, 6-4, will play third seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, who ousted Andres Molteni and Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-2.

There was an upset at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where qualifiers Santiago Gonzalez and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi eliminated top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 1-6, 6-2, 18-16, saving five match points. They will battle Americans Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka, who advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win against Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin. 

Fourth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, who are in sixth place in the Race, beat Brits Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski 7-6(7), 7-5.