Kubot/Melo Secure Nitto ATP Finals Spot For Fourth Straight Year
Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo have become the seventh doubles team to qualify for the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 15-22 November. The Polish-Brazilian team secured their place after beating Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-7(4), 6-3, 10-8 on Friday at the Rolex Paris Masters.
Kubot and Melo have captured two ATP 500-level titles in 2020 at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC (d. Cabal/Farah) in February and also at last week’s Erste Bank Open in Vienna (d. J. Murray/N. Skupski). They also finished runners up at the bett1HULKS Indoors in Cologne (l. to Herbert/Mahut) last month. The pair has a 14-11 record in tour-level finals.
Melo has now qualified for the prestigious season finale for the eighth straight year (since 2013). Six years ago, the Brazilian advanced to the final in London with Ivan Dodig (l. to Bryans). Kubot has competed at The O2 in London on six occasions (2009-10, 2014, 2017-2019). In November 2017, together with Melo, they finished as the year-end No. 1 team and advanced to the championship match (l. to Kontinen/Peers).