Tennis: Michael Venus bows out of Indian Wells quarter-finals

Michael Venus (right) and Raven Klaasen. Photo / Photosport

Kiwi Michael Venus and his South African partner Raven Klaasen have been knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters in California.

The seventh seeds lost to third seeds Croatian Mate Pavic and Austrian Oliver Marach 6-4, 6-7 (5) 10-5 in 1 hour 40 minutes.

Both teams served well in the first set with Pavic and Marach converting their only break point chance to take the set 6-4.

Venus dropped serve in the third game of the second set and while Marach was under pressure in the next game at 0-30, he held to consolidate the break.

Venus and Klaasen found a way to break Pavic when he was serving for the match at 5-4 and they played a strong tie break to force a deciding match tie break.

But they couldn't maintain the momentum in the match tie break and the third seeded pair advanced to the semifinals of what is the sport's unofficial fifth major.

Venus and Klaasen will head to Miami for next week's Masters 1000 tournament.
Meanwhile, Kiwis Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniell are in action this week at an ATP Challenger tournament in Phoenix in Arizona.

Sitak and his American partner Austin Krajicek are the second seeds and face Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin and Czech Lukas Rosol in the first round.

Daniell and Wesley Koolhof are unseeded and they have been drawn against Mexico's Santiago Gonzalez and Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi.