By Glenys Furness
- Jamie Murray & John Peers lose Basel final
- James Ward had good two weeks in India
- Aljaz Bedene qualifies for Paris masters main draw
Basel, Switzerland. Jamie Murray and John Peers made the final in Basel but missed out on the title. In Paris Masters qualifying Alijaz Bedene made the main draw. Over in India James Ward completed a good two weeks as he reached the Semi Final in Pune.
Murray & Peers made another final, this time in Basel. The ATP 500 event saw the Brit/Aussie pairing seeded third, they progressed through to the final only dropping two sets, in the first round and in the semi final, forcing both matches to go to a match tie break first to 10 points with two points clear. Along the way they faced Dom Inglot & Robert Lindstedt, fittingly as a partial battle of the Brits this was one of the matches that went the full distance. Murray & Inglot could potentially play together later this month in the final of the Davis Cup, as Britain take on Belgium in Ghent. Murray is likely to be in the doubles team, it will likely depend on the results on the first day as to who will be the other player.
In the final Murray & Peers faced Alexander Peya & Bruno Soares, Soares will be partnering Murray in the 2016 season, however in the Basel final Peya & Soares defeated the seeds in straight sets 7-5, 7-5.
Over in Paris and Bedene was the top seed in the qualifying rounds. Needing only to win two rounds and join Andy Murray in the main draw, Bedene soon progressed passed the first round wild card in straight set tiebreaks. The final qualifying round saw the Brit against Jerzy Janowicz, the top seed again faced a tiebreak in the first set, unfortunately from a British perspective, this went against Bedene and the Pole was up a set.
The second set saw the top seed play much better and dominate the set, taking it 6-2 to leave a one set shoot out. The Brit again raced out to a lead in the set and at 5-3 served for the match, Janowicz suddenly found his game again and broke the Brit before holding to level the set. Bedene though did not give up and finally grabbed the win 7-5 to land in the main draw.
Meanwhile, over on the challenger circuit and Ward followed up the great week in Bangalore, where he had won the title, by continuing a run of form. Seeded fourth in Pune the Brit progressed through the rounds dropping two sets before finding himself in the semi final. In that match he faced the top seed Yuki Bhambri. Ward went toe to toe with the top seed in the first set and forced the breaker, this itself was close before the Brit went down 6-8. The next set saw the top seed race out to a lead, before Ward managed to secure a break of serve bringing the set back to 5-3. The final game went the way of the top seed, but with a title and a semi final in back to back tournaments, the Brit should be growing in confidence again.
Moving to Monterrey and Darren Walsh had teamed up here with Mitchell Krueger. Walsh & Krueger dropped the first set in the very first round, but managed to take the remaining sets to move along. Walsh & Krueger progressed to the semi final where they ran into Thiemo De Bakker & Mark Vervoot. The Dutch team were too strong in the semi final for Walsh & Krueger and they lost in straight sets 2-6, 3-6.
In Australia and Brydan Klein took part in the Tralagon Challenger. Klein was seeded third in the singles where he progressed to the semi final before coming up against Jordan Thompson seeded two. Thompson took the first set easily 2-6 before Klein was able to make more of a contest in the second set. Ultimately the Brit lost 5-7 in the second, but another good week for Klein in the country of his birth. Klein also played doubles at this challenger and teamed up again with Dane Propoggia they were seeded third, like the singles Klein progressed to the semi finals this time with straight set wins. The Brit/Australian pairing were defeated in the semi final in straight sets by an unseeded pair of Australians.
Next week challengers involving Brits: Bogota, Columbia. Guayaquil, Ecuador. Canberra, Australia & Charlottesville, USA.
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