Venus and Daniell win battle of Kiwis

Michael Venus and Marcus Daniell have won the battle of the Kiwis to reach the quarter finals at the ATP Tour's Great Ocean Road Open in Melbourne. They have beaten Kiwi Artem Sitak and his Argentine partner Federico Delbonis 7-6 (6) 6-2 in 1 hour 25.

Venus and Daniell are using the tournament to play together as a one off with a view to playing doubles together at the Tokyo Olympics.

They went up a break early in the first set but were broken back and the first set was decided in a tie break.

Daniell says the first set could have gone either way.

“It was tight right until the last point, we were up early on and I think my rust after two weeks indoors showed a little bit, but we held on and played some big points when it really counted.” Daniell said.

Venus was happy they have had chances to practice together and start building their combination with a view to the Olympics.

“It’s been a while, but we had some fun practicing the last few days and we've been getting used to each other and helping each other out and so it's been a good opportunity to keep working on the partnership and learn off each other.” Venus said.

Venus and Daniell will face the Croatian Slovak duo of Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek for a place in the quarter finals and will also play the semi-final on Saturday if they win.