Murray/Soares First To Qualify For Semi-finals In London

Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals at the Nitto ATP Finals on Tuesday night. The fourth seeds beat second-seeded Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, for the third time in four meetings this year, 6-4, 6-3 in 73 minutes to move to 2-0 in Group Santoro/Llodra play.

The British/Brazilian team, who win the round-robin group after two matches, improved to 5-2 against Cabal and Farah, which includes three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clashes this year in Rome, Cincinnati and Shanghai. Murray and Soares are now 40-18 on the year ahead of their final group match against seventh seeds Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya on Thursday.

A forehand return winner from Soares helped the team to an early lead, before Farah clinched the third game on Soares’ serve with a backhand winner down the line. At 4-5, with Cabal serving at 30/30, clever net play from Murray and Soares gave the 2016 year-end No. 1s their first match point, which was converted to end the 38-minute passage of play when Cabal struck a lob long.

Murray came under pressure at the start of the second set, with Farah ripping a forehand winner passed Soares to break serve. Murray and Soares broke back immediately, and Murray later seized control of the net to punch away a volley winner to break Cabal for a 3-1 lead. Murray closed out the match with a hold to 15 by keeping Cabal behind the baseline.

Cabal and Farah, winners of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (d. Carreno Busta/Sousa) in May, dropped to a 38-22 match record on the season. The pair will next meet sixth seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus, who beat Mektic and Peya 7-6(5), 7-6(5) during Tuesday’s evening session. The winner of Thursday’s encounter will qualify for the semi-finals in second place.