Soares/Murray Reach Tokyo SFs; Rojer/Tecau Fall

Second seeds Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray reached the semi-finals of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships on Thursday by beating Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner 6-3, 6-4 in 67 minutes.

As a result, Murray and Soares have moved to within 10 points in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London of No. 4-ranked Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan (4,355) as teams battle to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November.

Murray and Soares, the only seeds left in the field with a 3-2 in finals record this year (7-4 overall as a team), will next challenge Dominic Inglot and Daniel Nestor in the Tokyo semi-finals.

Japanese wild cards Ben Mclachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama held their nerve to delight local fans with a 7-6(2), 7-6(3) victory over top seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in one hour and 37 minutes. Rojer and Tecau would have qualified for the season finale had they reached the Tokyo final. The Dutch-Romanian team is 16-4 in finals as a team (4-0 in 2017) and recently captured the US Open crown.

They go onto face Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta, who saved two match points (from 7/9) in the Match tie-break for the second time in as many days when the Mexican-Chilean team edged past third seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram 2-6, 7-6(5), 11-9 in 89 minutes. On Tuesday, Gonzalez and Peralta knocked out Marcin Matkowski and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 12-10 in a Match tie-break.

Klaasen and Ram are attempting to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, having reached the title match in 2016. They are currently No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London.

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