Tennis: Kiwi dips out of doubles in round 3

New Zealand's Michael Venus now prepares for Davis Cup against China in just over a week. Photo / Richard Robinson

New Zealand's remaining representative at the Australian Open was knocked out of the men's doubles yesterday afternoon with Michael Venus and Indian partner Yuki Bhambri falling in straight sets in their third round encounter.

The duo went down to fifth seeds Leander Paes, of India, and Czech Radek Stepanek 6-3 6-2.

The first set was with serve until the sixth game when Bhambri was broken on a double fault.

Paes then held his serve to make the score 5-2 before Venus came back with a love game on his serve and despite the Kiwi and Indian having a break point, Stepanek was able to serve out the first set.

The second set saw Bhambri broken in the first game and then the fifth game where Venus also managed to pummel Stepanek in the shoulder with a crunching forehand.

They gained one more game but in the end Paes served out the match.

Venus and Bhambri joked after the match that it was their first loss together having won a Challenger tournament in Winnetka on their first time pairing together and then the Australian Open wildcard tournament in China.

"It was a great experience being out there on that court. The crowd was awesome, I really enjoyed it. Of course I wish the result was a bit different," Venus said.

"They are great players and they played well today. We had our chances and we didn't quite take some of them. I felt I served well and Yuki was able to cut off the rallies at the net," he said.

"We'll now move on to the next tournament and work on things we can get better at."

The New Zealand-Indian combination only had three break points in the entire match and failed to convert any. Paes and Stepanek led the winners count 25-12 as they cruised to victory in just over an hour.

Venus now prepares for Davis Cup against China in just over a week. He will then team up with Bhambri to play a series of Challenger events in India and China which could take him close to direct entry into the French Open and Wimbledon doubles.

It is expected Venus will see his doubles ranking improve from 127 in the world to around 110 when rankings come out early next week.

Paes and Stepanek, the 2012 Australian Open champions, will face either second seeds Alexander Peya (Austria) and Bruno Soares (Brazil) or French pairing Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut.

Venus will collect A$18,000 ($19,110) prizemoney for making the third round.