Michael Venus Is Still Doing Big Things Out There
Michael Venus did not win a second career grand slam title this weekend. He and South African doubles partner Raven Klaasen went to five sets in the Men’s Doubles final at Wimbledon but fell to Americans Jack Sock and Mike Bryan in the championship match. A great effort and a brilliant couple weeks but one hurdle short of the silverware.
That’s sport for you. Still, merely making the final at all is a massive achievement and off the back of his French Open title with Ryan Harrison a little over a year ago it proves that this bloke is a serious player in the doubles world.
And don’t forget that in between this and that, he and Chan Hao-ching made the Mixed Doubles final at the last US Open, only to be beaten 10-8 in the decisive set by Martina Hingis and Jamie Murray. Hingis obviously being an absolute legend of the sport who has won Doubles and Mixed Doubles titles in all four grand slams and was a French Open short of doing the same in her Singles career (she made the final twice)… and Murray being the brother of Andy. And an extremely good Doubles player in his own right, to be fair, having won multiple Grand Slam Doubles titles.
That’s three major finals in about 14 months for Venus, all on different surfaces. This guy is doing incredible things the likes of which are very rarely seen from kiwi tennis players. He’s been chilling in the top 25 Doubles rankings ever since he won the French Open in 2017 – peaking at 12, currently at 21. A second Grand Slam title would have put him in a unique position as a multiple champion. Onny Parun won the French Men’s Doubles back in 1974 and that’s it for New Zealanders in the Open Era. Beyond that you’ve got to dig into Anthony Wilding’s six titles back at the turn of the twentieth century, so yeah we’re talking special stuff here from Mikey Venus.
Granted it hasn’t always been the best year for him, old 2018. Although you could say that it was all leading up to this. Prior to Wimbledon he’d gone 21-15 in Doubles games this year. He began things with Marcelo Demoliner as his partner, before linking up with Klaasen in Auckland for the ASB Classic, making it to the semis before losing 7-6 (7), 7-6 (6) to Max Mirnyl and Philipp Oswald in the semis. Gone in the first round of the Aussie Open. Also one and done in Rotterdam… but then the pair began to click with a title in the ATP 250 tourney in Marseille back in February.
One way or another a kiwi was winning that trophy with Marcus Daniell and his British mate Dominic Inglot meeting them in the final. Venus and Klaasen took it in the decisive third set which gave Venus his second victory at the Open 13 Provence in three years (having also won with Mate Pavic in 2016 – beating Klaasen in the final, funnily enough), but from our perspective the real glory was in having two New Zealanders competing on opposite sides of the net in an ATP World Tour final for the first time ever. Chuck that one in your history books, mate.
A run of quarter-final defeats in higher-rated tournaments showed they were on the brink. But, in trying to defend his Roland Garros title, a couple straight sets wins over local pairings didn’t quite prepare them for Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya dropping them in the round of 16. Throw in another final and we’re up to Wimbledon.
First round, Venus & Klaasen versus the Australian pairing of Alex Bolt and Lleyton Hewitt. Get outta here. Venus & Klaasen in four sets. Next up they did the business over Marcelo Arevalo and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo to advance one further. Leonardo Mayer and Joao Sousa gave them fits in a five-setter but, having failed to close it out in consecutive tiebreakers, a crucial break in the fifth set up the victory and the thirteenth seeds were through to the quarters.
Meanwhile Venus and his Mixed Doubles partner Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) were also working their way into the semis of that event, where they finally fell 6-4, 6-4 to Nicole Melichar and Alexander Peya, the latter getting some revenge after the French Open. Venus was still playing with Chan Hao-ching in the other Grand Slam Mixed Doubles events and didn’t go anywhere special, by the way. Keep it in mind though. This article is about his burgeoning Men’s Double partnership with Raven Klaasen but he’s a gun with the ladies too, if you know what I mean. Mixed Doubles, of course.
In the Men’s Doubles quarters it was old mate Jamie Murray again, coupled with Bruno Soares. Both ranked inside the top fifteen. Once again Venus and Klaasen were that little bit better off their own serve and, bingo, they took it in five. Didn’t even matter that they lost three match points before finally clinching it. Then Frederick Nielsen and Joe Salisbury were more of an underdog opponent and Venus & Klaasen despatched of them in four.
Ultimately Mike Bryan and Jack Sock would get the best of them in the final but it was far from a walkover. Having dropped the first set they held out to level things up in a tiebreaker for the second. The hard-serving Americans got back on top by taking the third yet a crucial break point at the end of the fourth sent us to a decider. The pressure mounted as both pairs held serve again and again. Venus and Klaasen were rolling through theirs, winning a couple to love and causing trouble the other way. Except they couldn’t convert those breaks and when the serves landed coming back the other way they finally wilted.
Michael Venus to NZH: “For the first half of the year we'd been solid but we just hadn't gotten over the hump of having that big result. I think we did that here and it showed us and (we) have the belief in the partnership that we can do this consistently. We showed ourselves we can play with the top guys consistently and perform well at the big tournaments.”
So it goes. Bit rough for South African tennis, with Kevin Anderson also losing in the Men’s final. But just to be there in the business end is a big deal and the same goes for Aotearoa. Michael Venus made waves with his historic French Open title last year and it’s been a little disappointing to see him slide back under the radar in our country’s sporting media eyes. Rest assured that he’s still getting it done.
And he’s not alone either, with Marcus Daniell making the quarters at the Aussie Open Men’s Doubles earlier in the year and Artem Sitak made it the same distance at Wimbledon, losing to Bryan and Sock in four sets two rounds before Venus & Klaasen got at them. These may not be headline making moves but kiwi tennis is on the rise.
Smash an ad after that if you’re on that TNC buzz