Friday 18 November 2016 18:35, UK
Brit Jamie Murray and his Brazilian partner Bruno Soares are assured of finishing the season as the world's top-ranked doubles pairing.
Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert can no longer overhaul Murray and Soares after they were beaten by Henri Kontinen and John Peers at the ATP World Tour Finals in London on Friday.
The French duo went into the tournament at the O2 with a lead of 575 points at the top of the rankings but have been well below their best and depart the event winless, following Kontinen and Peers' 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 10-4 success.
But Murray and Soares have stormed into Saturday's semis with three wins from three, provisionally claiming the top spot in the world with a win on Thursday night.
And Mahut and Herbert then failed to prolong the race when they were defeated on Friday afternoon.
Soares could also overtake Mahut in the individual doubles rankings if he and Murray go on to win the title.
The year-end top ranking caps a fantastic first year in tandem for Murray and Soares, who won grand slam titles at the Australian and US Opens.
Murray said: "It takes time to develop a partnership. We were fortunate to hit it off on the right note at the beginning of the year and it gave us a lot of confidence.
"We knew we could do good things on the court together and the number one ranking shows that. We'll try and compete this weekend to win the ATP World Tour Finals.
"It's pretty exciting to be the number one team."
And it could be an incredible weekend for the Murray brothers, because Andy remains on course to clinch the year-end singles number one spot after booking his semi-final spot by beating Stan Wawri
