Venus and Puetz bow out of Monte Carlo Masters

Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz have bowed out in the quarter finals of the Monte Carlo Masters, their first clay court tournament of the season.

The 5th seeds have lost 6-4 6-3 in an hour and 19 minutes to top seeds Britain’s Joe Salisbury and American Rajeev Ram. The first set was close with Venus and Puetz getting break points on Ram’s serve early on but were unable to convert. Serving to stay in the set at 4-5, Puetz was broken, not helped by a double fault at 30-30.

The top seeds got off to the ideal start in the second set when they broke Venus’s serve in the second game and they were largely untroubled on serve to complete a comfortable win.

Venus and Puetz continue their clay court seas at the ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona next week.