Venus to play World Tour Finals after agonising decision

Michael Venus will play in next week’s ATP World Tour Finals in London.

The 33-year-old Kiwi doubles player and his Australian partner John Peers last week qualified sixth in the race to London when they reached the quarter finals at the Paris Masters.

But their participation was in doubt due to Venus having a quarantine voucher in New Zealand for this week, meaning he would have to leave from London on Tuesday night. (Wednesday morning NZ time) He applied to have his managed isolation changed until after the tournament finishes on the 22^nd of November, but his request wasn’t granted.

Venus was initially told the earliest he would return to New Zealand was the 20^th of December and each day that return date was pushed out.

He feared not playing the ATP Finals would jeopardise his chances of qualifying for the Olympics due to a ranking points loss that would see him slip from 8 in the world to outside the top 20. Top 10 ranked players are guaranteed spots in the Olympics draw.

However, the Government has made an extra 100 places a day in  quarantine available in the lead up to Christmas from the 13^th of December and Venus has secured a spot-on the 13^th of December.

While he will still try to keep changing to an earlier date, he’s committed to trying to win the World Tour Finals with Peers, a tournament he will be playing in for the fourth straight year.

Venus will face three weeks in London after the tournament and unable to train due to the lockdown in the UK and then a further two weeks in quarantine in New Zealand. It will mean he won’t be able to prepare properly for the Australian Open which is scheduled for the end of January. He is considering tying to go to another European country, so he can train after the event at the 02 Arena.