Kiwis bow out of respective ATP and WTA tournaments

Olympic doubles bronze medalists Michael Venus and Marcus Daniell haven’t been able to reproduce their Tokyo form in the first round of the ATP 250 tournament in San Diego. They’ve lost in straight sets to Americans Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz, 6-4 6-3 in 1 hour and 6 minutes.

There is a chance the Olympic bronze medalists could play together at the prestigious Indian Wells Masters next week. Venus’s regular partner German Tim Puetz is recovering in Germany from a side strain that forced him out of the US Open and will decide in the next day or so as to whether he travels to Indian Wells.

“If Tim can't play, I need to be able to beat the original cut of entries with somebody else in order to keep my spot in the draw.” Venus said.  “I think the cut was 64 for Indian Wells for the combined doubles rankings and with Marcus our combined ranking this week would be 63 so we would be inside the cut.”

“Tim would have to withdraw by Monday. (Tuesday NZT) Indian Wells starts next Thursday (Friday NZT) for doubles so there's still a few more days and I think we will have a clear picture probably tomorrow how things will pan out.

Artem Sitak and partner Antonio Sancic have fallen in the first round in San Diego to the American duo of Jordan Thompson/Jackson Withrow 6-3, 6-4. 

Meanwhile Erin Routliffe’s run of finals appearances has come to an end at the WTA 500 tournament in Chicago. After making back-to-back Tour finals in Luxembourg and Ostrava, the Kiwi and American partner Kaitlyn Christian have been beaten in the first round in Chicago. They have lost 6-4 7-5 in one hour 38 minutes to Romanian Raluca Olaru and Ukraine’s Nadia Kichenok.