Terrific performance from Venus and Peers in Rome

Michael Venus and his Australian partner John Peers have advanced to the semi- finals at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome for the second straight year.

They have beaten Romanian Horia Tecau and Germany’s Kevin Krawietz in straight sets 7-6 (5) 7-5 in one hour 33. It was an incredibly close match with Venus and Peers getting the only break of serve, converting one of four chances. Venus says their serving was key.

“Playing these guys, they both have big serves and there wasn’t too many opportunities. We saved a set point at 5-4 on my serve in the first set and then played a good tie breaker. The rain started coming down late in the second set and we played a couple of good return games and managed to get a break at 6-5 and win the match.” Venus said.

Venus and Peers now face second seeds Mate Pavic and Nicola Mektic for a place in the final. The Croatians are the form duo of 2021 so far having won ATP Masters 1000 titles in Monte Carlo and Miami, an ATP 500 title in Rotterdam as well as reaching the Madrid final, Dubai final and Australian Open semis. Venus is aware of the magnitude of the task that awaits them.

‘They’ve lost two or three matches in the year so far so have won a lot and have a lot of confidence. We must start with ourselves and the things we can control and try to take care of our serves. If we do that hopefully we will get a look in with their service games at some point.”

“They are on such a good wavelength with each other and know what each other is doing one or two shots before they are even hitting the ball. They are putting themselves in great positions and setting them up nicely.”

Venus and Peers are playing just their second tournament together since February’s Australian Open and are behind the leading teams in the race to qualify for the ATP Tour Finals at the end of the season. (Venus returned home after Melbourne for his wife Sally’s birth of their second child in April.) Venus has played the elite eight team event for the past four years. The tournament is moving from London to Turin this year. By reaching the semis in Rome Venus and Peers are projected to climb to 18^th in the race and winning the tournament would get them close to the top eight.

Artem Sitak and Marc Polmans have lost their doubles quarter final at the Heilbronn Challenger tournament in Germany. They have been beaten 6-2 3-6 10-8 by Dutchman Sander Arends and India's Divij Sharan.

Erin Routliffe and Aldila Sutjiadi are through to the semi finals at the ITF US $100,000 tournament in Bonita Springs beating American's Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 13.