Top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski beat Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek 7-5 4-6 10-6 to boost their chances of qualifying from Green Group for the semifinals at the Nitto ATP Finals at the Pala Alpitour in Turin.
Despite their win on Friday morning Koolhof and Skupski must wait until the evening session to find out whether they have qualified for the semifinals. If Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios beat the already qualified Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic in the night session, the Australian team would reach the semifinals.
Koolhof and Skupski earned the first break of the match in the 12th game to win the opening set 7-5. Dodig and Krajicek converted their third break point in the fifth game and held their next service games to close out the second set 6-4.
Koolhof and Skupski earned two mini-breaks to open up a 4-0 lead. Dodig and Krajicek pulled one break back for 1-4. Koolhof and Skupski pulled away to a 8-1 lead with two more mini-breaks and earned six match points at 9-3. Dodig and Krajicek saved three match points but Koolhof and Skupski sealed the win on their fourth opportunity. “We are going to watch the match. Maybe here or at the hotel. If Mektic and Pavic win, we will have a semifinal tomorrow and we will need to rest up. We will have our Croatian flags waving in our hotel room and hopefully they can do the job for us”,said Skupski.
