Mixed news for Kiwi doubles stars in Europe
The race to qualify for the season ending ATP Finals in London will go to the final regular season tournament for Kiwi Michael Venus and his Australian partner John Peers.
They have been beaten in the first round of the ATP500 tournament in Vienna by French Open champions Andreas Mies and Kevin Krawietz from Germany.
Venus and Peers have lost 6-4 6-4 in 1 hour and 7 minutes and they remain 6th in the race to qualify for the elite eight team field for London.
Next week’s results at the Paris Masters will determine whether Venus competes for the fourth straight year at the O2 Arena.
Better news for the Kiwis at the ATP tournament in Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan.
Marcus Daniell and his Austrian partner Philipp Oswald have beaten Britain’s Dominic Inglot and Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 6-4 6-1 in 1 hour and 6 minutes to reach the quarter finals.
Artem Sitak and Dutchman Sander Arends are also through to the last eight. They were leading Serbian Nikola Cacic and Brazil’s Marcelo Demoliner 6-3, 4-5 when Demoliner was forced to retire through injury.