Johannesburg - When South African doubles stalwart Raven Klaasen and his partner Eric Butorac lost in the doubles final at this year's Australian Open, they could not have known it would come back to bite them a second time.
Defeat against Lukasz Kubot and Robert Lindstedt has cost Klaasen and Butorac the final place in next week's R70-million World Tour Finals in London, despite finishing above them in the rankings.
The ATP rules stipulate that anyone winning a grand slam title during the year automatically qualifies for the World Group Finals -- with Klaasen and Butorac consequently eased out of the prestigious event in spite of leading Poland's Kubot and Sweden's Lindstedt in the ranking points.
A grain of compensation for Klaasen and Butorac is that they have been named as the official reserve pairing next week.