Kiwi doubles ace Michael Venus and his South African partner Raven Klaasen have lost a titanic struggle against third seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the quarter finals of the Shanghai Masters.
Venus and Klaasen have gone down 7-6 (3) 4-6 10- 7 in 1 hour 47. It's their third close loss to Kubot and Melo in four matches this year.
Klaasen dropped all four of his service points in the match tie break and that proved the difference.
The result mean Venus will now race home to his base in London to try to make the birth of his first child. His fiancée Sally is due to give birth tomorrow and Venus is hoping the baby will be late.
The first set could have gone either way with a break a piece before the tie break which the third seeds won comfortably. But Venus and Klaasen hit back with an early break of serve in the second set. They saved three break points on serve to win the set and take the match to a first to 10 point match tie break.
