Venus could face Kyrgios at Indian Wells
Michael Venus could get a chance for revenge against Nick Kyrgios at the Indian Wells tennis Masters. The world number 15 and his German partner Tim Puetz are the 6th seeds and are in the same half of the men's doubles draw as Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis, whom they could meet in the quarter finals. The Australian pair won a testy quarter final against Venus and Puetz at the Australian Open and went on to win the title.
A day after the match Venus slammed Kyrgios's on court behaviour in a TVNZ interview and called him a 'knob' with the maturity of a 10-year-old. First up for Venus and Puetz are a tough Polish pair, Lukasz Kubot and top ten ranked singles player Hubert Hurkacz.
Erin Routliffe has teamed up with Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri in the women’s draw. They have an incredibly tough first round match against Czechs Marie Bouzkova and Lucie Hradecká.
Bouzkova is ranked 27 and Hradecka is vastly experienced. But Routliffe is in the form of her career and is ranked 33rd in the world and now comfortable playing among the top echelon of women’s doubles.
Meanwhile Rubin Statham was unable to back up his sensational win over Pablo Cuevas in last weekend’s Davis Cup tie against Uruguay in the first round of the US $100,000 ATP Challenger tournament in Monterrey in Mexico.
Statham has been beaten 7-5 6-3 in an hour and 38 minutes by American Alex Rybakov is ranked 360 in the world.
Statham now heads to an ITF US $25,000 tournament in Anapoima in Colombia next week.
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