Michael Venus to partner with Bianca Andreescu again in mixed doubles

Michael Venus will team up with Bianca Andreescu for the mixed doubles at Wimbledon, keeping together the partnership that made it to the final at this year’s French Open.

In Paris, Venus and Andreescu were just a few points away from winning a grand slam title together, losing 6-4 4-6 10-6 to Tim Puetz from Germany and Japan’s Miya Kato in the final.

After playing so well together, Venus and Canada’s Andreescu, who won the women’s US Open in 2019, have agreed to team up together again for the grass court grand slam.

“I messaged her a week after the French Open and said I enjoyed it,” Venus said. 

“I asked if she’d be keen to play again at Wimbledon and she said ‘yes, why not?’”

It was clear to anyone watching their matches how much Venus and Andreescu enjoyed playing together. 

Three of their four victories came from winning the super tiebreak, while their other win was a 7-6 7-6 triumph over Gabriela Dabrowski and Nathaniel Lammons. So they were able to consistently come through in the big moments, up until that super tiebreak in the final.

“It was great playing with her,” Venus said. “She’s obviously an unbelievable tennis player and you can see that from everything she’s achieved with her singles results.

“It was cool to get to know her better and be on court with her. She was super relaxed, but at the same time really into it.

“I had a lot of fun and enjoyed playing with her. It would have been nice to have gone one more, but that wasn’t the case, so we’ll see how it goes here.”

The partnership between Venus and Andreescu came through Tennis New Zealand’s former high performance director, Christophe Lambert, who stepped down from that role late last year to work as Andreescu’s coach.

“When Christophe first told me he was going to work with Bianca, I made a joke with him that he needs to hook me up with her for the mixed doubles and he laughed,” Venus said.

“But he said a few times that she’ll play the French Open and I thought he was joking with me.

"Then it turned out he was serious and I’m thankful for him helping pave the way for that to happen.

"It was really cool, she’s an awesome person and it was fun to be on the court with her.”

For the men’s doubles at Wimbledon, Venus will play with his regular partner Jamie Murray from Britain and in the first round they’ve been drawn against Albano Olivetti from France and Spain’s David Vega Hernandez.

There has been a significant change for the men’s doubles at Wimbledon this year, with matches moving from best-of-five, to best of three sets. 

The Australian Open switched to best-of-three sets for the men’s doubles in 1968, the French Open did so from 1990 and the US Open in 1994.

Reducing doubles matches to best-of-three set contests encourages more singles players to enter doubles at grand slams, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the best team will win the title.

“No matter what sport you play, the longer the game is, the more chance that the better player comes out on top,” Venus said.

“The shorter you make any format, the more potential there is for upsets.

“It is still the best of three sets with advantage scoring, so it’s still longer than how we play normally (in ATP tournaments) with the sudden death deuces and 10-point tiebreaker.

“Overall, I don’t think it will change much. With the normal scoring, you both have to return well together to break serve, so you need to work well as a team.

“I did enjoy playing the best of five sets, but potentially I don’t think it will change too much.”