South African Raveen Klaasen
South Africa’s Raven Klaasen and his United States doubles partner, Rajeev Ram, have reached the semifinals of the Indian Wells Masters tennis event in California.
Klaassen and Ram, the sixth seeds, defeated the Serbian duo of Novak Djokovic – a 12-time major winner in singles – and Viktor Troicki 3-6, 6-2, 10-6 in their quarterfinal clash on Thursday.
Klaassen and Ram had already claimed a notable scalp when they defeated 14-time major winner Rafael Nadal and Australia’s Bernard Tomic 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 11-9 in the round of 16 earlier in the week.
Klaasen and Ram will now play the unseeded pairing of Gilles Muller (Luxembourg) and Sam Querrey (United States) for a spot in the final of the year’s first Masters 1 000 event.
Muller and Querrey defeated third seeds and 2017 Australian Open men’s doubles champions Henri Kontinen (Finland) and John Peers (Australia) 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 10-6 in their quarterfinal clash. – Sport24