Doubles delight for Michael Venus, Lulu Sun at Roland Garros

Michael Venus and Lulu Sun both went the distance in their respective doubles matches at Roland Garros on Tuesday, but both have advanced to the second round.

Sun and her Chinese partner Yuan Yue defeated Russia’s Anna Blinkova and Mayar Sherif from Egypt 6-2 5-7 6-3, while at the same time Venus and Nikola Mektic beat Gregorie Jacq from France and Australia’s Matthew Romios 6-4 1-6 6-4.

It was a great day in Paris for New Zealand tennis, with Venus and Sun having good performances, even though they had to work hard with their opponents to get the victories. 

On Court 2, Sun and Yuan raced out to a 3-0 lead in the opening set of their match and had two break points to go up 4-1. 

They weren’t able to take either of them. But had two set points on Blinkova’s serve a short time later and on the second of them, Sun produced a deft drop shop, killing all of the pace on the ball, to win the point.

Sun survived a break point against her in the opening game of the second set, but Yuan wasn’t so successful two games later.

That was followed by five breaks of serve in a row, before Sun finally got a hold, with Blinkova putting a forehand into the net on game point. 

However, Yuan was broken two games later and after a long battle where she had to save three break points, Blinkova held to send the match into a third set.

There were breaks for both teams in the early stages of the deciding set, but Sun and Yuan got the crucial one in the eighth game to go up 5-3.

On the first match point Yuan put a backhand down the line into the net, but she earned themselves a second match point and this time Yuan hit a perfectly placed forehand into the corner.

As this was taking place, Venus and his Croatian partner had a similarly tight match on Court 8.

They got the break in the sixth game of the opening set and then kept hold of that lead.

But the No 7 seeds couldn’t get going in the second set and found themselves down 5-0 before they got on the board.

At 4-5 in the deciding set, Venus and Mektic stepped up their returns and went after Jacq’s serve to go up 0-40.

The next two points went the way of Jacq the Frenchman, but on the third match point Mektic hit a blistering return to secure a spot for himself and Venus in the second round. 

In the mixed doubles draw, Venus and fellow Kiwi Erin Routliffe are seeded fifth. They will face Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova in the first round.