Huge win for Daniell and Oswald at Australian Open

New Zealand’s Marcus Daniell and his Austrian partner Philip Oswald have battled their way into the third round of the men’s doubles at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

They have come back from a break down in the first set to beat Germany’s Dominik Koepfer and American Tennys Sandgren 7-6 (4) 6-7(3) 6-2 in 2 hours 06.

Daniell and Oswald got off to the worst possible start when the Austrian was broken in his opening service game and while they had a break back point against Sandgren’s serve in the 5^th game, they couldn’t convert and the American and German surged to a 4-1 lead. But serving for the first set Sandgren had a shocker and was broken to love to let Daniell and Oswald back into the set.

The got back to 5-5 and had two break points against Kuepfer’s next service game but couldn’t convert. Daniell then saved a set point on serve to take it to a tie break which they won 7-4. The second set was tight all the way to the tie break with no break points for either team. However, Koepfer and Sandgren capitalised on a couple of errors from the Austrian and Kiwi to level things up.

Daniell and Oswald took control early in the deciding set breaking Koepfer first and then Sandgren to run away with the match.

Daniell and Oswald will be straight back out on court Sunday for their third round match against American's Nicolas Monroe and Francis Tiafoe.

Kiwi number one Michael Venus meanwhile and his Australian partner John Peers will have another day off before the 10^th seeds take on 5^th seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury on Monday for a place in the quarter finals.

“We have played Rajeev and Joe numerous times and there are no secrets there. Everyone knows what each other is trying to do it just comes down to execution and believing in yourselves.” Venus said.