Routliffe, Venus into mixed final four at Wimbledon

Kiwi dream team Erin Routliffe and Michael Venus are into the semifinals of the mixed doubles at Wimbledon.

Late on Thursday, the No 2 seeds defeated Desirae Krawczyk from America and Britain’s Neal Skupski 7-5 6-4 in one hour 18 minutes on No 3 Court/

They will move on to play Jan Zielinski from Poland and Hsieh Su-Wei on Friday for a place in Sunday’s final.

It was an odd occasion for Venus, having to play against his men’s doubles partner this fortnight, but he managed to overcome that as he and Routliffe won their third match together at this year’s Championships.

In the first set Routliffe was broken once, while both of her opponents dropped a service game, then in the second set Krawczyk was broken again when serving at 3-4.

After that, Routliffe and Venus stayed solid, with Skupski putting a forehand into the net on match point.

Venus says he and Routliffe have only played mixed doubles together at a few grand slams, but they do now have an understanding of how each of them likes to play.

“It changes tactics wise, depending on who we’re playing and things like that,” Venus said.
“But we have a better feel of what each other likes to do and how we do things.

“We got down a break and didn’t panic, we knew what we were trying to do and how to go about it and once we settled down we got back on track and it was a really good match, because they won here a few years ago and they made the finals of the French Open, so they’re a good team.”

Venus said it was odd for him to go up against Skupski in a mixed doubles match, having spent the past month with him as his men’s doubles partner.

“It’s funny when I’m looking over the net or I’m telling Erin where I’m going to serve,” he said. 

“I’m thinking in my mind he probably knows where I’m serving. So do I go the opposite way, or will he think I’m going to go the opposite way?

“So you can start playing games in your head about that, but you try to block that out and focus on what you’re doing.”

Routliffe was at Wimbledon early on Thursday to watch Venus’ men’s doubles semifinal, just like she was courtside to see Lulu Sun’s quarterfinal against Donna Vekic. 

But she has also spent many hours stuck on site because of the numerous rain delays. 

“I should have been sleeping here,” she joked. 

“It would have been more beneficial to sleep here. It’s been wild.

“I think everyone has felt like that, the last three days, the three late nights I had, it seemed pretty unlucky, but those are problems you want to have.

“If you’re at the courts all the time, it means you’re playing a lot of matches and I’m not going to complain.

“I was quite tired today, but Mike had to play two matches, so that was way harder than me playing just one in mixed.

“With the rain it’s tough, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. If I’m going to spend somewhere all day, it’s OK if it’s at Wimbledon.”