Tokyo: India's Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin defeated Jamie Murray and John Peers 7-6(5), 6-4 to capture their first ATP World Tour team title on Sunday at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships.
The fourth seeds took 78 minutes to dispatch off their opponents. With the win, they also improved their chance of grabbing one of the five remaining spots at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.
"The strategy worked well today," said Bopanna. "We played as a team today. Edouard is very solid on return and puts pressure on the serve, which gives me the freedom to play my game."
"We started playing together after Wimbledon, so we knew that the battle to qualify for [the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals] London would be hard. We would have to do well at the big tournaments and [ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events] in Shanghai and Paris. We will take the confidence we have from here."
