Venus and Puetz into Stuttgart semis

Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz have battled through to the semi-finals at the ATP 250 tournament in Stuttgart.

The top seeds have beaten the French pair of Benjamin Bonzi and Arthur Rinderknech 7-6 (6), 3-6, 10-7 in an hour and 27 minutes.

Venus and Puetz had beaten their opponents a couple of weeks ago at the French Open.

There was only one break of serve in the match and it came in the 7^th game when Puetz was broken and the match was decided in a match tie break.

Venus and Puetz led 9-4 and eventually converted on their fourth match point.

The Kiwi says there was very little in the match.

“Yeah, I mean, if you look at the stats, again, there were a few points here and there and everyone was holding serve pretty comfortably the whole match and you're just lucky enough in those tiebreakers. Tim came up with some great returns and that got us over the line.”

They will face fourth seeds Frenchman Fabrice Martin and German Andreas Mies in the semi-finals.

“It will be another tough match; they both serve well. They know what they're doing at the net and make it really difficult returning. So, if we can take care of our service games, then I’s just try and create something on returns or see what happens.”

“This week it’s just a matter of spending time on court and just trying to work through getting used to the surface and what's working for us out there. It’s been great to be able to come through two top matches. Winning matches no matter where it is always builds confidence.” Venus said.