ATP Finals: Henri Kontinen and John Peers retain doubles title
by Andy Schooler, at The O2
Henri Kontinen and John Peers successfully defended their ATP Finals doubles title with a convincing victory in Sunday’s final.
In doing so, the Finnish-Australian pairing became the first team since Bob and Mike Bryan in 2004 to win the trophy in back-to-back years.
The Australian Open champions took an impressive 3-1 head-to-head record into their final against Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, the team who had pipped them to the year-end number one ranking earlier in the week, and dispatched them once again with a 6-4 6-2 success.
Kontinen and Peers were on top from the outset and lost only three points on serve in the first set, the key moment coming in the fifth game when Melo lost his serve.
Kubot's delivery was broken in the first game of the second set to leave the Wimbledon champions in trouble and their situation got worse when the Pole lost serve again in game five.
Kubot and Melo did create break-back chances but both Peers and then Kontinen held firm, the duo clinching victory when the Australian snapped away a volley at the net to end a 69-minute contest.