Venus and Peers lose tight Rome semi final

Michael Venus and his Australian partner John Peers have lost a closely fought doubles semi-final at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome for the second straight year.

The unseeded Antipodean pair have been beaten 7-6 (5) 7-6 (4) in 1 hour 38 by second seeds Mate Pavic and Nicola Mektic. Both teams were not broken in the match and saved three break points each. The Croatian pair have been the dominant team in 2021 and are now into their fourth ATP Masters 1000 final having won the Monte Carlo and Miami titles and finishing runner up in Madrid.

Venus and Peers now head to the ATP 250 tournament in Geneva where they are the second seeds and play Marcelo Arevalo and Matwe Middelkoop in the first round.

Artem Sitak after spending much of the season so far playing on the ATP Challenger tour, has got into the main draw at the ATP 250 tournament in Lyon. He is playing with Portugal’s Joao Sousa and they have been pitted against Spaniard Marc Lopez and Frenchman Fabrice Martin.

Meanwhile Erin Routliffe and her Indonesian doubles partner Aldila Sutjiadi are through to the final at the ITF US $100,000 tournament in Bonita Springs.

They’ve beaten American Emira Bektas and Britain’s Tara Moore 6-4,3-6,10-6 in the semi finals and will face Japanese third seeds Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato for the title.