Venus and Puetz make a winning start to the clay court season
New Zealand’s top ranked doubles player Michael Venus and his German partner have reunited after Puetz missed the Miami Open. They have started with a first-round win at the Monte Carlo Masters to kick off their clay court season campaign.
The 5th seeded pair have beaten dangerous Russians Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev 4-6, 7-5, 10-5 in an hour and 35 minutes. They will play either Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin and American Austin Krajicek or Russian Aslan Karatsev and Aussie John Peers, a former partner of the Kiwi, in the second round.
Meanwhile Artem Sitak and Artem Sitak and his French partner Jonathan Eysseric lost their doubles final on Sunday at the ATP Challenger tournament in Mexico City.
They have lost 6-2 6-3 Chilean Nicolas Jarry and Brazilian Matheus Pucinelli De Almeida in exactly 1 hour on court.