Venus, Mektic move past tricky American team in Miami

Michael Venus and Nikola Mektic have defeated the all American team of Learner Tien and Mackenzie McDonald in the first round of the Miami Open.

The No 5 seeds fought back to beat the local players 3-6 6-3 10-5 and move into the second round.

The 19-year-old Tien, who defeated Daniil Medvedev on his way to the fourth round of the Australian Open a couple of months ago looks to be one of the next big stars in tennis and he posed as a formidable team with McDonald at Miami.

However, although they were able to push their experienced opponents, Venus and Mektic came out on top.

There was just one break of serve in the opening set, with the wildcard recipients saving all four break points they had against them. There was also only a solitary break of serve in the second set, with it this time going to the Kiwi/Croatian team.

In the super tiebreak, Venus and Mektic got out to a 5-2 lead, then extended that to 9-4 and a couple of points later, clinched the match.

Venus and Mektic will play against Hugo Nys from Monaco and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the next round.