TENNIS LAST TWO DOUBLES SPOTS AT THE BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS COMING DOWN TO PARIS MASTERS

Written by: Staff on 29th October 2016

TENNIS LAST TWO DOUBLES SPOTS AT THE BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS COMING DOWN TO PARIS MASTERS |

Photo by @ATPWorldTour via Twitter

By Ricky Dimon

Max Mirnyi and Treat Huey will play two consecutive matches against the teams directly below them in the race to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. That was the luck–or perhaps the bad luck–of the draws at this week’s Swiss Indoors Basel and next week’s BNP Paribas Masters in Paris-Bercy.

Mirnyi and Huey, currently seventh in the race to London, lost in the Basel quarterfinals 6-7(9), 6-4, 10-4 to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. Rojer and Tecau, the defending champions of the World Tour Finals, are one spot out at No. 9 in the standings. They could have moved into qualifying position by capturing the Basel title, but the Dutch-Romanian duo fell to Robert Lindstedt and Michael Venus 1-6, 6-3, 10-8 in the semifinals.

As such, Mirnyi and Huey actually moved up from No. 8 to No. 7 despite their quarterfinal setback. That’s because Henri Kontinen and John Peers lost in the Basel first round to Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin via a 6-4, 7-6(5) decision. Kontinen and Peers have 3,140 points–a mere 25 points behind Mirnyi and Huey; 270 points ahead of Rojer and Tecau.

A crucial first-round Paris showdown will now feature the seventh and eighth teams in the race: Mirnyi and Huey vs. Kontinen and Peers. The winner will also certainly book a spot in London, because that duo would have to be overtaken by both Rojer and Tecau and another team. Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, the 10th-place pairing, would have to reach at least the Paris final. Rojer and Tecau must reach at least the semis to have a chance.

Rojer and Tecau have a first-round bye, awaiting the winner of Jack Sock and Nicholas Monroe vs. Marcin Matkowski and Dominic Inglot.

Top 8

1. Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut: 7,235 points.

2. Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares: 7,170 points.

3. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan: 6,170 points.

4. Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez: 4,270 points.

5. Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo: 4,130 points.

6. Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram: 3,700 points.

7. Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi: 3,165 points.

8. Henri Kontinen and John Peers: 3,140 points.

Next 4

9. Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau: 2,870 points.