JAMIE MURRAY AND BRUNO SOARES CLINCH YEAR-END NO. 1 DOUBLES RANKING, KLAASEN AND RAM ADVANCE AT WORLD TOUR TENNIS FINALS

Written by: Staff on 18th November 2016

JAMIE MURRAY AND BRUNO SOARES CLINCH YEAR-END NO. 1 DOUBLES RANKING, KLAASEN AND RAM ADVANCE AT WORLD TOUR TENNIS FINALS

epa05635471 Bruno Soares of Brazil (L) and Jamie Murray of Britain in action against Marcelo Melo of Brazil and Ivan Dodig of Croatia during their Men's doubles match at the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 17 November 2016. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA |

By Ricky Dimon

Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares will finish the season as the No. 1 doubles team in the world after Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert lost their match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Friday afternoon. Mahut and Herbert had already been eliminated from semifinal contention, but they would have remained alive for the top ranking spot with a single round-robin victory. Instead, the French duo succumbed to Henri Kontinen and John Peers 6-7(5), 6-4, 10-4.

Whereas Mahut and Herbert went 0-3 in Group A despite being the top seeds, Murray and Soares compiled a perfect 3-0 record to win Group B. The British-Brazilian will be No. at the end of 2016 even if it falls to Klaasen and Ram on Saturday evening.

Rajeev Ram (L) of the United States and Raven Klaasen of South Africa in action against Feliciano Lopez of Spain and Marc Lopez of Spain during their Men’s doubles match at the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 18 November 2016. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

“It takes time to develop a partnership,” explained Murray, who just started playing with Soares this season. “We were fortunate to hit it off on the right note at the beginning of the year and it gave us a lot of confidence. We knew we could do good things on the court together and the No. 1 ranking shows that…. It’s pretty exciting to be the No. 1 team.”

“My phone is shaking quite a lot now,” Soares added. “It’s a great achievement and now I have to win the title to become the individual No. 1. So I have a chance.”

“They had an amazing year,” said Andy Murray, who is obviously locked in a battle of his own for the singles year-end No. 1 ranking. “(They) only started playing with each other in January; won the two slams, which is fantastic. Jamie had not won a (men’s doubles) slam before this year; Bruno neither.

“They obviously complement each other’s games very well. They’ve played I think really [well] in most of the big competitions. They deserve it. They’ve obviously played extremely well this week. They knew pretty much what they were going to have to do (to finish No. 1). It’s a great achievement for both of them. (I’m) very proud of Jamie.”

Kontinen and Peers will play Saturday’s first semifinal against Bob and Mike Bryan. The Bryan brothers went 2-1 in Group B to finish second behind Murray and Soares.