Tennis: Michael Venus wins thrilling first round match in Madrid

Michael Venus. Photo / Doug Sherring

Top Kiwi doubles player Michael Venus and his South African partner Raven Klaasen have staged a late rally to reach the second round at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid.

Venus and Klaasen have beaten the Spanish duo of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez. 3-6,7-5 10-8 in 1 hr 22. Venus and Klaasen were behind in just about every stat but somehow dug deep to record a memorable victory.

"It's great to get through the first round. We have won at least one round at each of the Masters 1000 tournaments this year, but we would like to go further." Venus said.

The first set went with serve until the 6th game when Venus was broken thanks to some spectacular returning from Feliciano Lopez who is also the assistant tournament director in Madrid and takes over as tournament director next year.

Both Spaniards were untroubled on serve and took the first set in 24 minutes after converting one of their four break point chances.

The roof was closed over the court due to rain and the ball flew through the air in the humid conditions with the altitude also making it must faster than most of the tournaments on the European red clay.

Venus and Klaasen gradually found their rhythm on serve in the second set but still saved four break points. They continued to struggle on their opponents serve before turning things around late in the set.

Leading 6-5 they hey produced a superb return game to break Marc Lopez to love and take the second set 7-5. It was the first break points they had conjured up in the match and took the momentum into the first to 10 points match tie break.

"We hadn't been in many return games so were aggressive and managed to connect on a few of the returns which put us in a great position to go into the match tiebreak." Venus said.

Venus and Klaasen got out to an early lead and Venus served for the match at 9-7. While he couldn't close it out on serve, Venus and Klaasen won the next point to secure their place in the second round.

It's a significant result for the Kiwi who has no points to defend before the defence of his French Open title later this month. With 1000 points on offer for the winners this week and next week at the Rome Masters, Venus is looking to minimise the effect of any early exit in Paris where he has 2000 points to defend from his Roland Garros triumph last year.

Venus and Klaasen will face the 8th seeds India's Rohan Bopanna and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the second round in Madrid.