Venus, Mektic lose tight first round match at Australian Open

Michael Venus and Nikola Mektic have lost in the first round of the doubles at the Australian Open, going down 7-6(3) 6-3 to the Portuguese duo of Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral, in a match that lasted one hour 20 minutes.

After winning the ASB Classic last week, Venus and Mektic went to Melbourne with high hopes. But the No 5 seeds weren’t quite able to nail the big moments.

It was a match dominated by serving, with only four break points across its entirety.

Mektic was broken in the opening game of the match, but Borges was broken when serving for the set at 5-3.

The Kiwi / Croatian team were on the back foot from the start of the tiebreak, with Mektic losing the first point on his serve. 

The Portuguese moved up 5-2 and on their first set point Venus was unable to return Cabral’s sharp backhand down the line.

The second set was tight, but serving at 3-4 Mektic was broken again and Borges then served out the match to love.

“No matter who you play, it's going to be a few points here or there and if you can take the momentum when you get it and kind of roll with it, you'll probably do a little bit better,” Venus said of the match afterwards.

"Unfortunately, it was not an ideal start, but these things are going to happen throughout the year, and it's about how you rebound and come back from them. 

“We did a good job getting back in the set and really turned that momentum around. 

“We were 6-5, 0-30 there and had a look at a couple of those points that the majority of the time, maybe we take one of those and then we're looking at set point. 

“You do that, and things can swing quite quickly in the other direction.” 

Unfortunately for Venus and Mektic, they weren’t able to grab one of those points to put them ahead and Venus said he can understand why Borges has had great results recently. 

“There's a reason why Borges is in the third round and playing [Carlos] Alcaraz tomorrow,” he said.

“He’s obviously seen the ball well, playing a lot of matches. He did well in Auckland also (reaching the semifinals), and Cabral complimented him well today around the net.” 

Although this was an earlier than expected exit from the men’s doubles in Melbourne, Venus says he and Mektic are still going through the getting to know each other stage. 

“Well watch the match back later and look at some areas where we can continue to improve as a team and work together,” he said. 

“But both of us are enjoying being on court together in matches and training and how we both go about things. 

“So really optimistic for the rest of the year and seeing what we can do.”

Although Venus is finished as far as the men’s doubles goes, he is in the mixed doubles and partners Erin Routliffe for a first round clash against Jelena Ostapenko and Joe Salisbury.

Venus and Routliffe are the second seeds, but Venus puts that high seeding down to his partner.

“We're the second seeds because Erin's No 2 in the world,” he smiled. 

“It's nice to have that number, but really it's because of her. 

“They (Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski) had a really tough first round yesterday, and considering they haven't played matches for a while, they did a great job to get through that (beating Desirae Krawczyk and Danielle Collins 4-6 6-4 6-3). 

“So I'm looking forward to getting back out on the court with Erin and seeing how we can go.”