Kiwi Venus holds court as the centre of attention
Michael Venus is into the final of the men’s doubles at Wimbledon.
The New Zealander and team-mate Raven Klaasen, of South Africa, defeated Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Frederik Nielsen from Denmark 7-6 3-6 6-3 6-4 on a packed No 1 court at Wimbledon yesterday.
‘‘It’s really exciting, it’s the one grand slam you look at the most when you’re growing up,’’ Venus said after the match.
‘‘So to be playing here, in the final and back out on Centre Court, there should be another great atmosphere and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity.’’
This is Venus’ second men’s doubles grand slam final in as many years, following on from his win in last year’s French Open final and it’s his third grand slam final in all, having reached that stage in the mixed doubles at last year’s US Open.
For Venus and Klaasen, this was perhaps their easiest victory so far at this year’s Wimbledon, as they held serve throughout the match and were able to apply the pressure when needed against their opponents, who were given a wildcard into the draw.
When Venus and Klaasen played on Centre Court on Wednesday, it was after two women’s quarterfinals matches, with their doubles match really just an add on to the schedule to offer value for money to the paying public.
But on court No 1 yesterday, there were only doubles matches played and the big crowd came along largely to watch this semifinal.
At no other grand slam does doubles get this much attention and the around 11,000 spectators watching this match were enthralled by the action.
‘‘Both of those courts are big and nice,’’ Venus said.
‘‘It’s great to have a lot of people in there watching.’’
The first set was won by Venus and Klaasen 8-6 in a tiebreak, but Klaasen was broken in the decisive fourth game of the next set, with Salisbury ripping a backhand return down the line on break point.
The third set went to Venus and Klaasen and there was a resigned look on Nielsen’s face when he was broken to love in the seventh game of the next set.
About 10 minutes later Venus put a serve down the middle that Nielsen hit into the net and that was the match.
In the final they will play the Americans Jack Sock and Mike Bryan, who knocked out Kiwi Artem Sitak and Divij Sharan in the quarterfinals.
‘‘Mike has won a ridiculous amount of titles [118], most of them with his brother though, so it’s a different combination. But Jack is a very good doubles player himself, he won Indian Wells earlier this year and he won Wimbledon here with Vasek Pospisil, so he knows what he’s doing,’’ Venus said.
‘‘We’re going to have to focus on ourselves and make sure we’re bringing our level and go from there.’’
Later, Venus returned to No 1 court for his mixed doubles quarterfinal, where he and Katarina Srebotnik, a former singles winner of the ASB Classic, knocked out the third seeds Ivan Dodig and Latisha Chan 7-5 3-6 6-0.
In the semifinal overnight they were to play against Alexander Peya and Nicole Melichar on No 3 court.