Venus and Puetz impress in opening round win at Indian Wells

Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz are off to a cracking start to the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. The 6^th seeded pair have beaten the Polish duo of Hubert Hurkacz and Lukasz Kubot 6-2 6-2 to reach the second round.

“Yeah, we played well” Venus said. ‘We had played both of them individually with different partners and we know what each of them can bring and the level they have. Today we got off to a good start and were making a lot of returns. It was one of those situations where they haven’t really played much together and were still trying to get used to each other and figure a few things out and that kind of allowed us to settle and get comfortable out there and get in a good grove.”

Venus and Puetz the 6^th seeds will face a more challenging second round encounter against Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas and veteran Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.

“Tomorrow it’s going to be another tough match. These guys won Acapulco. (The ATP 500 tournament on the same week Venus and Puetz won in Dubai.) Tsitsipas is obviously doing well in singles so it should be a great atmosphere and should be really tough match.” Venus said.

The match is fourth on court and should start around 11am NZT.

The winners will either face Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis, the Australian Open champions who beat Venus and Puetz in the quarter finals, or American’s John Isner and Jack Sock.