Michael Venus reaches yet another ASB Classic semifinal

Michael Venus is into the semifinals of the ASB Classic for the fifth time in his career, thanks to a 6-4 4-6 10-5 win with Nikola Mektic over the Spanish duo of Pablo Carreno Busta and Sergio Martos Gornes on Thursday evening.

After racing out to a 3-0 lead in the opening set, the rest of the match was tight, coming down to a super tiebreak following Mektic having his serve broken at 4-5 in the second set.

Despite the disappointment from that, Mektic said he and Venus had to quickly move on.

“You just have to regroup in your head,” Mektic said. 

“Think about what the game plan is, there's not too much time. It helped they started with the double fault and went with a few mini breaks up, so that helped, that we were in front the whole time.”

Venus was also pleased with how he and Mektic played in the super tiebreaker, particularly after going up 5-0 in it and he said the crowd helped them.

"Especially with doubles, the momentum changes so quickly,” Venus said.

“Those super tie breakers, we play them all the time, but we all know that in a blink of an eye, it can change.

“So to have that energy behind you to lift you and that positivity, it definitely helped us tonight.”

Venus and Mektic will play against Yuki Bhambri from India and France’s Albano Olivetti in the semifinal on Friday on Centre Court. It’s the third match on, so their time as the late night entertainers at Manuka Doctor Arena has come to an end

During their late evening matches they played in front of fans who’ve been enjoying a good night out at the tennis and might have made a few trips to a bar, but Venus says that creates a great atmosphere to play in.

“Anytime you play here is good and later in the evening people have had maybe a couple of drinks, so it might be a little bit more vocal,” he said. 

“Anytime you get to play on this court, I'm happy whatever time it's going to be. So just excited, excited and relieved to be through that and time to get ready for tomorrow.”

Venus first made the semifinals in Auckland back in 2012, when partnering Dan King Turner and he also did it in 2016, 2018 and 2019 and there wouldn’t be a better way to prepare for the Australian Open for him than to win this title for a second time.