Miami Open Doubles Final Preview

• In Saturday’s doubles championship, French No. 5 seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut take on unseeded Ravan Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of the U.S.

• Herbert and Mahut enter on a 9-match winning streak after capturing their maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown in Indian Wells (d. Pospisil/Sock).

• Klaasen and Ram are appearing in their third career ATP World Tour final together (1-1), first this season. Last year they captured the grass court title in Halle (d. Bopanna/Mergea) in their second tournament together and were finalists in Kuala Lumpur in October

• Herbert/Mahut defeated Marach/Thiem 76(3) 64 in 1R, Qureshi/Simon 62 63 in 2R, Chardy/Martin 67(5) 76(5) 10-7 in QF and [4] Bryan/Bryan 63 63 in SF to reach first Miami final.

• They are trying to become first French team to win Miami doubles title in tournament’s 32-year history and first team to win Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back since Bryan brothers in 2014. 

• Frenchmen have 41-15 career record on ATP World Tour (10-2 in ‘16) and on 9-match winning streak

• Reigning US Open champions (d. M. Lopez/Granollers, Rojer/Tecau, Inglot/Lindstedt and J. Murray/Peers) won ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells two weeks ago (d. Pospisil/Sock) and Queen’s Club last season (d. Matkowski/Zimonjic).

• Appearing in 7th career final together (3-3). Advanced to 2015 Australian Open final (d. Benneteau/Roger-Vasselin and Dodig/Melo, l. to Bolelli/Fognini). Also reached finals in 2015 at ’s-Hertogenbosch (l. to Karlovic/Kubot) and Metz (l. to Kubot/Roger-Vasselin).

• World No. 12 Herbert is 4-3 lifetime in finals (1-0 in ATP Masters 1000 finals) and World No. 7 Mahut is 12-10 in finals (1-1 in ATP Masters 1000 finals), winning title last month in Rotterdam w/Pospisil (d. Petzschner/Peya).

• Klaasen/Ram defeated [3] J. Murray/Soares 36 63 10-7 in 1R, Cilic/Draganja 76(10) 60 in 2R, Petzschner/Peya 76(5) 57 10-7 in QF and Huey/Mirnyi 64 62 in SF to reach first Miami final

• The South African, American duo have a 25-16 career record together, including 9-5 this season. Prior to Miami, they lost 1R matches in straight sets in Delray Beach, Acapulco and Indian Wells. Their best results this year are SF in Chennai and QF at Australian Open (l. to eventual champs J. Murray/Soares)

• They are appearing in their third final together (1-1). Last season they won their first ATP World Tour title together in Halle and reached the final in Kuala Lumpur later in season.

• World No. 20 Klaasen has a 9-6 career record in doubles finals and World No. 36 Ram has an 8-4  record in finals. This is Klaasen’s second career ATP Masters 1000 final. He won in Shanghai last October (w/Melo). Ram is making his debut in an ATP Masters 1000 final.

EMIRATES ATP DOUBLES TEAM RANKINGS: Herbert/Mahut will move from 3 to No. 2 regardless of final outcome in the next Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings.