Venus storms into yet another ATP final

Michael Venus and British partner Neal Skupski have romped into the final of the ATP 500 tournament in Washington DC. The second seeds have thrashed young singles stars Italian Jannik Sinner and American Sebastian Korda 6-3 6-0 in just 43 minutes. The second set lasted 17 minutes. It was an impressive performance from the scratch combination who are only playing together this week.

Venus will now face his former doubles partner Raven Klaasen and New Zealand born Ben McLachlan for what would be his 16^th career ATP title if he and Skupski are triumphant.  The South African and Japanese representative beat New Zealand’s Marcus Daniell and Brazilian partner Marcelo Melo 6-4 7-5 in one hour 19.  

After tomorrow’s final Venus will travel to Toronto for the ATP Masters 1000 tournament there where he is reuniting with his new regular partner Germany’s Tim Puetz. They are the seventh seeds and have been drawn against the Belgian pair of Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen in the first round. Venus has been in sensation form since he and Puetz lost early at Wimbledon. They won the ATP 500 tournament in Hamburg in just their third tournament together before the Kiwi teamed up with Daniell to win a bronze medal at the Olympics.

Marcus Daniell is having a week off next week before heading to the Cincinnati Masters.

Meanwhile Ajeet Rai and partner Blake Ellis have beaten the Japanese pair of Taisei Ichigawa and Seita Watanabe 6-2 6-3 in 55 minutes to win the Doubles title at the ITF tournament in Monastir in Tunisia.