Venus and Daniell both seeded at Roland Garros
Venus and Daniell both among seeds for French Open doubles
Kiwis Michael Venus and Marcus Daniell have both received favourable draws for the doubles at Roland Garros. Venus and his Australian partner John Peers who are playing together for the last time, are seeded 10th while Daniell and Austrian partner Philipp Oswald are seeded 16th.
Both Artem Sitak and Erin Routliffe have failed to get into the main draw as alternates.
Daniell and Oswald have been drawn against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics and Italian Stefano Travaglia in the first round. They are not notable doubles players but Daniell is wary.
" On paper the draw is decent but it's never good to underestimate singles players on clay. I've played Marton on clay before and he can light up from anywhere on the court, and Travaglia is solid. We're going to go in with zero expectations and do the best job possible. It's great that we're seeded - this is a first for me - so we'll be looking to take advantage of our strong position in the draw."
Daniell and Oswald are projected to face third seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the third round. That pair beat Daniell and Oswald in the Australian Open quarter finals.
Venus and Peers open their campaign against the French wild card pair of Benjamin Bonzi and Antoine Hoang. They could potentially face French sixth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in the third round.
But Venus isn't looking beyond the first match.
" The French team we have been drawn against is going to be a tough match. When they have teamed up to play doubles like at last years French open they had match points in the 3rd round against the team who won the tournament. They obviously play well and enjoy playing at home here so we are going to need to be ready to go." Venus said.