Venus into Winston-Salem semis, Sun gets handy US Open draw

Michael Venus and Yuki Bhambri are into the semifinals of the ATP tournament at Winston-Salem, while Lulu Sun has been given a good draw for the US Open.

Venus and his Indian partner defeated Rohan Bopanna, who is also from India and Monaco’s Romain Arneodo 7-6(2) 6-3.

It was the first time in six matches for Venus and Bhambri where they haven’t had to play a third-set super tiebreak and this was one of their best performances together since forming a partnership in July.

Bopanna and Arneodo got out to a 5-2 lead in the opening set, before Venus and Bhambri won three games in a row and in the tiebreak the Kiwi/Indian team went 3-0, establishing a lead they didn’t relinquish.

There was another early lead from Bopanna and Arneodo in the second set, as they went up 2-0, but they were to win only one more game for the remainder of the match.

In the semifinals they will play against the Brazilian duo of Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo.

Meanwhile, Sun has been drawn against Camila Osorio from Colombia in the first round at the US Open.

The 23-year-old Osorio is ranked 57 in the world. She is a former US Open junior champion, but she has never progressed beyond the second round in the women’s draw in New York

If Sun wins, she will play the winner of the match between Elise Mertens and Alyssa Ahn in the second round.