Klaasen/Venus Start Strong In Toronto

Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus picked up crucial points in the ATP Doubles Race To London on Tuesday, beating New Zealand’s Artem Sitak and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

Klaasen/Venus are in sixth place in the Race with the top eight teams qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 11-18 November at The O2 in London. The South African/Kiwi pairing will next face fifth seeds Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo.

Elsewhere, Croatian Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya of Austria dropped only four games against Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Aussie Nick Kyrgios 6-2, 6-2, and Americans Sam Querrey/Rajeev Ram didn’t face a break point during their 7-6(4), 6-3 victory against Italian Marco Cecchinato/Bosnian Damir Dzumhur.