Murray/Peers Reach Basel Doubles Final
Jamie Murray and John Peers reached their eighth final of the season on Saturday at the Swiss Indoors Basel. Third seeds Murray and Peers scraped past Dominic Inglot and Robert Lindstedt 7-5, 1-6, 12-10. Murray and Peers could not convert match point opportunities at 9/8 and 10/9 in the Match Tie-break prior to closing out victory in 71 minutes.
Murray and Peers will bid to lift their seventh team title Sunday in their 16th final. They are 2-5 in finals this year, but will split up at the end of their first appearance at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 15-22 November.
Second seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau fell to Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares 6-3, 7-6(5) in Saturday’s second semi-final, with the Austrian-Brazilian pair still in contention to grab the final spot in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London. Peya and Soares will look to overtake Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea after beating the Indian-Romanian duo in the Basel first round.
Murray and Peers square off against Peya and Soares for the eighth time and third in 2015. The Brit and the Aussie trail 2-5 overall, but have not dropped a set in the rivalry this year, winning in the Wimbledon quarter-finals and last week at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
Butorac/Lipsky To Face Lopez/Mirnyi In Valencia Final
Americans Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky have not dropped a set all week at the Valencia Open and will look to ride their good fortune to a second team title and first since Estoril 2009. Butorac and Lipsky defeated Chris Guccione and Andre Sa 7-6(4), 7-6(3) to reach their second final as a duo this year (Winston-Salem). Individually, Lipsky will vie for his 14th tour-level crown in 24 finals, while Butorac is hoping to build on a 16-10 mark in title matches. They will face Feliciano Lopez and Max Mirnyi on Sunday after the Spanish-Belarusian tandem downed Julian Knowle and Oliver Marach 6-1, 3-6, 10-6. Lopez (1-6 in finals) and Mirnyi (48-42 in finals) were runners-up in their lone ATP World Tour title match in Acapulco last year.