Venus and Peers cruise through first test at the Australian Open
New Zealand’s top ranked doubles player Michael Venus and his Australian partner John Peers have made a cracking start to their Australian tennis Open campaigns in Melbourne.
The 10th seeds have thrashed Australia’s top singles player Alex De Minaur and his compatriot Matt Reid 6-3 6-2 in 1 hour and 4 minutes.
Peers and Venus served superbly and won 81 percent of serves on first serve, hitting 22 winners to 14. They converted three of their eight break point chances and didn’t face a break point against their serve in the match. Venus and Peers won 64 points to their opponents 48.
Venus is thrilled with the performance. “For us with our game styles and how we work together as a team it starts with our serving and we did that well today.” Venus said.
They will next face Korean wildcards Min-Kyu Song and Ji Sung Nam for a place in the third round for the second straight year. The pair of 30 year old Koreans are both ranked outside the top 100 but upset Kiwi born Ben McLachlan who represents Japan and India’s Rohan Bopanna in the first round.
Marcus Daniell and his Austrian partner Philip Oswald get their campaign underway on day four at Melbourne Park. They take on the French pair of Adrian Mannarino and Giles Simon in the last match of the day on court 16.
Fellow Kiwi Artem Sitak and his British partner Jonny O’Mara start on court 17 against 6th seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the first match of the day from one o’clock (NZT)
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