Jamie Murray and John Peers close in on place at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London

John Peers and Jamie Murray (GETTY IMAGES)

Jamie Murray and John Peers are in contention for a place in the doubles field at next month’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London after their fine start to the autumn Asian swing.

The Scot and the Australian followed up their title triumph in Bangkok a week earlier by reaching yesterday’s final of the Rakuten Japan Open here before going down 7-6, 6-4 to Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Murray and Peers, who joined forces at the start of this year, need a good run in the closing weeks of the season to earn a place in the eight-team field at the O2 Arena, but the fact that they are in with a chance is a tribute to their form over the last six months. They have won three titles in that period and made the final here in their first appearance in a World Tour 500 event. This week’s Shanghai Rolex Masters will be the first Masters Series tournament they have played together.

“Qualifying for London isn’t something I’ve been thinking about, but for us to be close is a pretty big effort, considering we haven’t been able to play in the tournaments the players ahead of us have,” Murray said. “Now that our rankings have moved up hopefully we can start to play more of those tournaments next year. I think next year we’ll give it a good go.”

Juan Martin del Potro took a big step towards securing his place in the singles field in London when he won yesterday’s singles final here, beating Milos Raonic 7-6, 7-5.