South Africa’s Raven Klaasen and American Rajeev Ram caused an upset on Monday night at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals when they defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut both of France, who are vying to become the year-end No. 1 pair in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings.
Klaasen and Ram won 7-5, 6-4 in 83 minutes in a Group Fleming/McEnroe round-robin encounter, which avenged their loss to Herbert and Mahut in this year’s final of the Miami Open.
Had Herbert and Mahut won the match, then Mahut would have become the first Frenchman in the 40-year history of the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings to finish as the year-end individual No. 1.
Herbert and Mahut are now just 375 points ahead of Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in the fight to finish as the No. 1 team for 2016. A total of 1,500 points is up for grabs at the season finale this week.
South African doubles specialist Klaasen and his American partner Ram qualified in 7th position for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals which is being played in London this week.
It is a debutant appearance in London for Klaasen and Ram. The world’s top eight singles players and doubles teams battle out in London at the iconic O2 Arena on the River Thames for year-end glory from 13-20 November.
Klaasen and Ram have been drawn into a four-team group which includes top seeds Herbert and Mahut alongside Roland Garros champions, fourth seeded Spaniards, Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez plus Henri Kontinen (Finland) and John Peers (Australia), who are the form team just having recently won in Paris and who are also making their London debut.
Klaasen, 34, and 32-year-old Ram are now 32-20 on the season, which includes two ATP World Tour titles at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle and the Chengdu Open.
Klaasen said that he and Ram played well at the important moments and executed the game plan accordingly.
“It was a big much needed win against the top seeds and gets our campaign off to a positive start,” Klaasen admitted, according to TennisSA.
“Stepping out onto the O2 Arena was in itself a challenge and wow what a fabulous experience it was, being able to avenge our defeat in Miami against the Frenchmen in such an atmosphere,” the South African added.
