Venus cruises into third round but Daniell bows out of Australian Open

Saturday, 22 January 2022

6^th seeds New Zealand’s Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz are through to the third round of the men’s doubles at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

They’ve beaten Spaniard Rafael Carballes Baena and Frenchman Hugo Gaston in straight sets, 6-1 6-4 in 1 hour and 8 minutes.

It was an impressive effort from the Kiwi/German combination who claimed the prestigious Paris Masters title in November in their last tournament of last season together.

Venus and Puetz both held serve and then broke Gaston in the 4^th game with some super returning from the German before Venus saved three break points in the next game before holding serve to consolidate the break.

Puetz made a fantastic return of serve to break Carballes Baena on the third attempt in the next game before he closed out the opening set in 34 minutes on his fourth set point.

Venus and Puetz had a 79% first serve percentage in the first set compared to their opponent’s 50 percent.

It was a similar story in the second set with Gaston broken in the opening game with Venus and Puetz able to hold serve comfortably throughout to complete an impressive win. They hit 28 winners to 14 and never faced a break point in the second set. Venus and Puetz will face Australian wildcards Jason Kubler and Chris O’Connell for a place in the quarter finals.

They will likely be back on court tomorrow against each other in the second round of the Mixed Doubles. Venus and Erin Routliffe play Puetz and one of Routliffe’s former partners Alexa Guarachi who are the fourth seeds.

Meanwhile Marcus Daniell and his Danish partner Freddie Nielsen have been comprehensively beaten 6-1 6-2 in just 56 minutes by second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in their second-round doubles match at Melbourne Park.

The American /British combination were able to convert 2 of 3 break point chances in the opening set and faced no chances against their serve.

Games went with serve until 2-2 in the second set before Daniell was broken again and the 2020 Australian Open champions powered through to the third round after breaking Nielsen again before closing out the match.

Jack Loutit has lost in the first round of the Junior boys singles to Australian wild card Jeremy Jin who completed a 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, victory in an hour and 22 minutes.