Can Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek’s impressive late-season form carry them all the way to the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin?
The Croatian-American pair showed no sign of slowing down in its pursuit of a spot at the season finale on Thursday, when it registered a 6-4, 6-3 quarter-final victory against top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer at the Swiss Indoors Basel.
It was a sixth consecutive tour-level win for Dodig and Krajicek, who lifted their second ATP Tour title of the season on Sunday in Naples. They remain in ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, but Thursday’s 73-minute triumph moved Dodig and Krajicek within 180 points of eighth-placed Tim Puetz and Michael Venus.
With a seventh-place finish required to guarantee qualification for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals, Dodig and Krajicek will seek to boost their chances further when they meet Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov in the semi-finals in Basel. The Kazakh duo advanced to the last four with a 7-5, 6-3 win against Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez.
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Home Favourites Erler/Miedler Seal SF Spot In Vienna
At the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, home wild card pairing Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler edged the big-serving duo of Hubert Hurkacz and Marcelo Melo 7-6(6), 6-4 in a hard-fought quarter-final clash.
Erler and Miedler reeled off three points in a row from set point down at 5/6 in the first-set tie-break, moments which proved pivotal in a tense encounter. They clinched the sole break of the match in the fifth game of the second set to seal a 78-minute win in which they won 91 per cent (42/46) of points behind first serves.
Erler and Miedler’s opponents in the final four will be Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen, who saved a match point in the Match Tie-break before prevailing 3-6, 6-3, 11-9 against Daniel Evans and John Peers, while Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni ended the Nitto ATP Finals qualification hopes of Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop with their 6-2, 6-7(4), 10-8 quarter-final triumph against the Indian-Dutch pairing.
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