New Zealand doubles player Michael Venus has notched up one of his finest career wins to reach the third round at the French Open.
Michael Venus Photo: Photosport
The 29-year-old and American partner Ryan Harrison have upset the fourth seeds and previous Grand Slam winners Poland's Lukasz Kubot and Brazil's Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-7, (7-5) 6-3 in one hour and 59 minutes overnight.
Venus who has a current ATP doubles ranking of 39 and Harrison broke in the very first game of the match and served well throughout. Venus and Harrison held their serves throughout the contest and never looking challenged when serving.
They closed out the first set in 33 minutes and games went with serve throughout the second to go to a tie breaker. However Venus double faulted at 4-5 in the tie break and Kubot and Melo took the second set.
The third set was even until 3-2 when Venus and Harrison broke Melo's serve and took control. They won the match with ease and never once faced a break point against their serve.
"I'm really pleased with how we played today and excited to be in the position we are now. I hadn't won a match, or a set here in the past. I think we had a pretty good first serve percentage as well so once we were doing that and not giving away any free points it helped us get control," said Venus.
They will face the unseeded Indian pair of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan for a place in the quarter-finals. They had ousted the 15th seed Olivier Marach and Venus's former partner Mate Pavic.
The day was completed for Venus with a first mixed doubles win as well as he teamed with Alicja Rosolska (Poland) to defeat eighth seeds Bruno Soares (Brazil) and Julia Ostapenko (Latvia) 6-2 7-6(5).
