Kontinen/Peers To Face Kubot/Melo For Washington Title

Henri Kontinen of Finland and John Peers of Australia will play for their second tour-level title of the season on Sunday at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. The top seeds and Australian Open champions beat third seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 6-7(8), 7-5, 10-8 to reach the ATP World Tour 500-level final.

Kontinen/Peers hit 10 aces and saved six of seven break points to advance in one hour and 43 minutes. The semi-final was the second consecutive match they’ve clinched in a Match Tie-Break. They advanced to the semi-finals by beating Croatians Ivan Dodig and Mate Pavic 7-5, 4-6, 14-12.

Kontinen/Peers will face Marcelo Melo of Brazil and Lukasz Kubot of Poland, who beat Americans Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach their first Citi Open doubles final. Melo and Kubot have now won an astounding 17 matches in a row, dating back to their title sprints at the Ricoh Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Gerry Weber Open in Halle and Wimbledon. Kubot/Melo beat Kontinen/Peers in the semi-finals at SW19.

Their last loss was more than two months ago, on 2 June, to Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus in the second round of Roland Garros. Harrison/Venus went on to win the clay-court Grand Slam title.