Venus bows out of Miami Open

Michael Venus and his stand in partner Britain’s Lloyd Glasspool have been beaten in the first round of the Miami Open.

The scratch pairing has lost 7-5 6-4 in an hour and 13 minutes to the second seeds American Rajeev Ram and Britain’s Joe Salisbury after having two set points in the first set.

Venus’s regular partner Tim Puetz skipped the tournament to attend to personal matters back in Germany, but judging from the way they started the match, you wouldn’t have thought the Kiwi and his British partner had never played together before. They broke Ram in the opening game of the match and led 2-1 before Venus dropped serve. However, they were able to break Ram again in the 5^th game and after Glasspool consolidated the break, the unseeded pair led 4-2. Venus was able to hold serve for a 5-3 lead and Glasspool then had a chance to close out the set. At 40-30 with two set points, he served a double fault and on deciding point Venus was unable to get to a high backhand volley.

From 5-1 Salisbury and Ram, took control with an easy hold and then broke the Kiwi for a second time, to love to take the first set.

They broke Glasspool in the second game of the second set and appeared to be cruising to a comfortable win. But serving for the match at 5-3 it was Salisbury’s turn to wilt and he dropped serve to love on the back of some stinging returns from Venus and Glasspool.

But the revival was short-lived as serving to stay in the match, Glasspool was broken in the next game with the second seeds progressing through to the second round.

Venus will be reunited with Puetz when he returns to the Tour for the clay court season, starting with the Monte Carlo Masters from the 10^th-17^th April.