Winning start for SA's Klaasen at ATP Finals

Cape Town - South African tennis star Raven Klaasen and his New Zealand doubles partner Michael Venus made a winning start at the ATP Finals in London on Sunday.

The fifth-seeded pairing beat fourth seeds Rajeev Ram (America) and Joe Salisbury (Great Britain) 6-3, 6-4 in 64 minutes, saving all four break points they faced.

It was Klaasen and Venus' second straight appearance at year-end finals and they improved to a 33-17 win-loss record in 2019.

The SA-Kiwi duo won ATP titles in Halle and Washington DC and also made the semi-finals at Wimbledon.

"We'll take that every day of the week," Klaasen told the ATP Tour's official website. "To be the first match of the Finals is a bit nerve-racking and to get off to a good start certainly puts our minds at ease for the rest of the tournament."

First win of the #NittoATPFinals ?@ravenklaasen & @mike_venus defeat Ram/Salisbury 6-3, 6-4 to begin their campaign in London ??

??: @TennisTV pic.twitter.com/g2QTe1G1kK

— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 10, 2019

Results on the first day of the ATP Finals at London's O2 Arena on Sunday (x denotes seeding):

Singles

Group Bjorn Borg

Novak Djokovic (SRB x2) bt Matteo Berrettini (ITA x8) 6-2, 6-1

Dominic Thiem (AUT x5) bt Roger Federer (SUI x3) 7-5, 7-5

Doubles

Group Jonas Bjorkman

Raven Klaasen/Michael Venus (RSA/NZL x5) bt Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury (USA/GBR x4) 6-3, 6-4

Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo (POL/BRA x2) bt Ivan Dodig/Filip Polasek (CRO/SVK x8) 4-6, 6-4, 10-5

- Compiled by Herman Mostert