Dodig/Krajicek Take Basel Title, Step Up Turin Charge

Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek continued their late season charge Sunday by defeating Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin to lift their second consecutive ATP Tour trophy at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The Croatian-American duo held their nerve at the tail-end of both sets in their 6-4, 7-6(5) championship match win. They broke their opponents’ serve in the tenth game to clinch the opener before storming to an unassailable 6/2 lead in the second-set tie-break en route to a 97-minute victory.

Dodig and Krajicek’s red-hot run of form has given the pair a real shot at qualifying for November’s Nitto ATP Finals, just six and a half months after becoming a permanent partnership. Their title run in Basel lifted them two spots to eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as they head to France for this week’s Rolex Paris Masters.

“For us, the tennis never stops,” said Krajicek. “We are going to Paris tonight and we will prepare the same way we’ve been preparing. Hopefully we can take the good form to Paris and just focus on playing one more good match on Wednesday or Thursday, and the rest of the stuff will take care of itself.”

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Dodig and Krajicek are now just 50 points behind Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios in the Live Race. A seventh-placed finish is required to guarantee qualification for this year’s season finale, to be held in Turin from 13-20 November.

Sunday’s win avenged Dodig and Krajicek’s defeat to Mahut and Roger-Vasselin in the Florence final two weeks ago. Since that loss, the pair has won eight straight matches to claim the titles in Naples and now Basel.

“We had a great tournament,” said Dodig after he and Krajicek lifted their maiden ATP 500 crown as a team. “I think we came here with good confidence, and we played good tennis from the first round.

“In these big matches with Nico and Eddie, it’s always a couple of points. Two weeks ago, we lost to them in the Florence final, but this time we were more ready, better prepared and I think we executed at great moments. [On] the big points we played really good and I think we deserved to win today.”

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