Venus on brink of upset but goes down swinging
Kiwi wildcard Michael Venus was left to rue a couple of crucial missed opportunities after pushing sixth seed Feliciano Lopez to the brink in the first round of the ASB Classic.
Two years after beating Colombia’s Alejandro Gonzalez, history almost repeated for Venus as he won the first set and almost took the second to claim what would have been another memorable victory.
However, the Spaniard’s experience shone through in the end, scraping home 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
‘‘I’m obviously disappointed with the result but the guy’s a quality player,’’ Venus said.
‘‘I gave myself break point in the second set to serve for the match and break points to be back on serve at 5-4 in the third.
‘‘I was definitely in a great position and just didn’t come through on a couple of points.’’
Venus, a full-time doubles player, is not even ranked inside the top 1000 in the world and no one expected him to get close to the 28th-ranked Lopez.
He mixed sublime shots with gritty resolve and it was not until eighth game of the third set when Lopez edged clear of his opponent.
And despite doing his best to allow the 29-year-old back in the match by giving up three break points, he gathered his composure to seal the contest in one hour, 47 minutes.
Venus had the measure of Lopez for most of the first two sets, forcing the 35-year-old to dig deep into his reserves just to send the match to a decider.
His brave performance somewhat vindicated tournament director Karl Budge’s decision to give him a wildcard ahead of top-ranked New Zealand singles players Finn Tearney and Rubin Statham.
And Venus said playing at home brought the best out of him.
‘‘When I was training in Florida I was playing practice sessions with the singles guys and I knew I was playing at a high level and I can play at that level,’’ he added.
‘‘Obviously, I definitely play better here at home on that court with the crowd behind me.
‘‘I look at the match and I think I can play better and that’s something that’s really positive to take from.’’
Venus will now focus on defending the doubles title he won with Mate Pavic last year, although this week he is teaming up with Robert Lindstedt of Sweden.
While it is be a long shot, Lopez could yet face another Kiwi in the second round as he meets the winner of Artem Sitak’s match on Tuesday against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Sitak is the last remaining New Zealander in the main draw after Tearney lost 6-3, 7-5 to Dutchman Robin Haase earlier in the day.
But Tearney feels he has at least settled on an aggressive style that he believes will serve him well in the future.
Having become the first Kiwi since 2008 to make it through qualifying at the Auckland event, Tearney made a point of taking the fight to Haase, who at No 59 is ranked 388 places above the Aucklander, and it paid dividends early in both sets as he twice held a 3-0 lead.
But while he was unable to go the distance, Tearney was pleased with how he fared.
‘‘Not just for this game but I’m just trying (to be aggressive) for the rest of my career,’’ said Tearney, who with his qualifying triumph is set to overtake Statham as the New Zealand No 1.
‘‘Obviously my serve is still something I’m trying to work on and just continually try to get it better but I’m really trying to press forward and put pressure on guys.
‘‘I’m not sure where it can take me but I know I’m going to be more successful doing that than just hanging back and rallying with guys."
Haase’s reward for his victory is a difficult second-round clash against and four-time champion and third seed David Ferrer.
As one of the top four seeds, the Spaniard was given a bye in the first round and Haase is hoping that works in his favour.
‘‘If I play well and I serve well I will get my chances,’’ he said. ‘‘Now I’ve at least played in these conditions, maybe I can get a little bit of advantage from that.’’
Elsewhere, 2015 champion Jiri Vesely progressed to the second round to set up a match against last year’s winner Roberto Bautista Agut.
The 23-year-old Czech overcame Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 6-3 on centre court, while Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri beat another Argentine, Diego Schwartzman, 7-6 6-3.
In the opening match of the day, seventh seed Steve Johnson kicked off the main draw with a straight sets victory over Frenchman Stephane Robert.
Under cloudy skies at Stanley Street, Johnson, a bronze medallist in the men’s doubles at last year’s Olympics, was far from his best and took some time to find his rhythm.
But after battling back to take the first set, he cruised into the second round with a 6-4 6-3 win where he will meet the winner of Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan and Russia’s rising star Karen Khachanov.
In the last match of the night, Germany’s Dustin Brown defeating America’s Michael Mmoh 7-6 3-6 6-4, in arguably the most entertaining contest of the men’s tournament so far.
Brown will play the winner of Tuesday’s match between Marcos Baghdatis and Adrian Mannarino.