Nice win for Venus and Puetz at Paris Masters

New Zealand’s top ranked doubles player Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz have won through to the second round at the Paris Masters.

They’ve beaten the Italian duo of Fabio Fognini and Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (5) 6-4 in the first round in 1 hour 31.

It was a tight match all the way with the Kiwi saving two break points at 4-4 in the first set and then in the tie break Venus and Puetz rallied from 5-3 down winning the next four points to take the set.

They converted one of their three break points in the second set at 4-4 and then comfortably served out the match. It doesn’t get any easier for them in the next round as they face second seeds Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram who they beat at the Indian Wells Masters last month.

Venus and Puetz are also scheduled to play next week’s Stockholm Open to finish their season.

Meanwhile Artem Sitak and Radu Albot have won their opening match at the ATP Challenger tournament in Bergamo in Italy. They have beaten the Indian pair of Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-2 6-2 and will face the Bosnian-Herzegovina duo of Damir Dzumhur and Nerman Fatic in the quarter finals.

Ajeet Rai has won his first-round singles match at his latest ITF tournament in Monastir in Tunisia. He has beaten Pierre Delage in straight sets, 6-3 6-3 in one hour 32.