Kiwi French Open doubles champion Michael Venus has been dumped out of the Australian Open doubles in the first round.
Venus and partner Raven Klaasen, the eighth seeds, have been defeated 7-6(14), 7-6(4) by the pairing of Scott Lipsky and David Marrero.
It is the second straight Grand Slam where Venus has been eliminated in the first round, following his 2017 defeat at the US Open.
His pairing with South African veteran Klaasen had a solid start, making the semifinals at Auckland's ASB Classic, but Lipsky and Marrero took out the key points against them today.
An epic 16-14 tiebreaker was edged by the unseeded pair, and the game again went to serve in the second set, before Lipsky and Marrero once more took out the tiebreaker to clinch a tight victory.
