Venus bundled out in doubles
Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen have been knocked out of the ASB Classic at the semifinals stage.
They lost to Philipp Oswald from Austria and the Belarusian Max Mirnyi 7-6 7-6 in one hour 39 minutes on a hot and humid Friday afternoon in Auckland.
As the scoreline suggests, it came down to just a couple of points, with it being a match dominated by big serving and there wasn’t a single break of serve in the 24 games played.
Occasionally though that was close to happening. At 3-4 in the first set Venus saved two break points with a couple of big serves and not long after that they were into a tiebreak.
On the first point Oswald double faulted, but Klaasen did just the same on the next.
Oswald and Mirnyi were up 6-4 later in the tiebreak, Venus saved the first set point with a smash and the next with a good volley at the net.
But at 7-7 Venus couldn’t get a wide volley to his forehand side and Oswald then sealed the set with an ace.
Mirnyi had to save a break point at 3-4 in the second set and did so with an ace.
It was pretty inevitable that the second set would also be determined by a tiebreak.
At the change of ends it was 3-3, but the Kiwi/ South African team went up 6-4.
They lost the following point and almost won the next to send the match into a super tiebreak, but a lob from Mirnyi over Venus’ head landed just in. It was a great shot, not without some luck, but it was a match defining moment.
Venus couldn’t get back a low ball on the next point, so Mirnyi had a match point.
Klaasen’s return went straight to Oswald at the net who had time to put it wide of Venus.
It was obviously disappointing for Venus and his South African partner to lose like that and not being able to play in Saturday’s final.
But throughout this week they’ve demonstrated that they’re a good team, who could do well this year on the circuit.
‘‘It was a close match, we had set points there in the second set and we were on top of those points and were unlucky to get out of those,’’ Venus said afterwards.
‘‘There were a few points here and there and if we got those it would have been a completely different match.
‘‘We tried to make some adjustments where we could and for myself I definitely could have done a few things better today, but it’s never going to be perfect every day.
‘‘We worked well, gave it everything and gave ourselves a chance.
‘‘So that’s a positive thing.’’ Klaasen said he’s happy with how he and Venus are gelling after their first tournament together in seven years and he feels optimistic heading into next week’s Australian Open.
‘‘If you asked me when I arrived here if we’d get three matches under our belt this week if I’d be happy, I would have said yes,’’ Klaasen said.
‘‘We got what we needed here, it would have been nicer to win here today and get another go, but we’ve learned a lot about each other, we seemed to click out there.‘‘.