Venus, Skupski save match point for first-round Wimbledon win

Michael Venus and Neal Skupski saved a match point against them to defeat Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler 6-7(5) 6-3 7-5(5) in the first round of Wimbledon on Thursday.

The match, which was hanging in the balance until a super tiebreaker at the end of the third set went for two hours, 20 minutes to complete. 

Venus’s serve was broken in the second game of the match, but at 3-2 and 15-40 on Erler’s serve the Kiwi hit an incredible lob that hit the line and levelled the set.

In the tiebreaker Venus double-faulted at 0-1 and the Austrians were able to keep hold of that lead to take the opening set.

But the Kiwi/British team got a break early on Miedler’s serve in the second set, which turned out to be the crucial moment in it.

In the deciding set Venus and Skupski had three break points on Miedler’s serve at 4-4, but weren’t able to convert any of those opportunities and when Venus was serving at 5-6  the Austrians got themselves a match point. However, Miedler put a second serve into the net, so Venus and Skupski lived on.

The set eventually went to a 10-point super tiebreaker and in it, Venus and Skupski had a 4-2 lead at the first change of ends and when they swapped sides again it was an 8-4 advantage. 

Three points later Skupski put away a smash at the net to put the No 9 seeds into the second round.

"Every match you play you’re dealing with different conditions, different opponents," Venus said.

"These guys were only a couple of spots from being seeded and last year I played them in the second round here and we won 6-4 in the third.

"So I’m really happy to be through to the next match."

This win takes Venus and Skupski's unbeaten streak to nine matches and Venus thinks this is the longest of his career. 

"I’m pretty sure I haven’t won back-to-back Tour events before," he said.

"The calibre of teams we’ve been playing and the situations we’ve been in, we’ve managed to find ways and it’s been really exciting."

In the next round, they play the Australian duo of Rinky Hijikata and John Peers, who sunk local hopes by beating Andy and Jamie Murray on centre court on Thursday night.

Venus said for a number of reasons it would have special to play against the Murray brothers.

"They were scheduled on Centre Court (against Peers and Hijikata), so it would have potentially been on a big court," he said.

"With Andy’s career, playing against him at Wimbledon would have been a great experience. Then at the same time, it would have been extremely awkward to play Jamie.

"We play with each other and know each other’s game inside and out, so it would have been a really strange and interesting match. 

"But unfortunately, they lost that one, so we play Peers and Hijikata."