Venus into major ATP final

Kiwi tennis player Michael Venus has hit another high in his final tournament of the year.

The 29-year-old from the North Shore ranked 39 in the world in doubles has reached the final at the Swiss Indoors ATP 500 tournament in Basel, Switzerland.

It is the ninth final of the year for Venus, with four wins and four finals so far. However the Swiss Indoors is a step up from his previous finals as it is an ATP 500 event and has prizemoney of $2.15million Euros.

Venus and Swede Robert Lindstedt defeated the tournament top seeds Horia Tecau (Romania) and Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands) to reach the final 1-6 6-3 10-8 in just over an hours play succeeding after adjusting their game significantly at the conclusion of the first set and breaking their opponents serve once in the second set.

"Its nice to play well in a big tournament like this. We made some simple mistakes in the first set and we got totally outplayed, but in the second set we played to our strengths and then were able to hold on. Weve had some good results in this tournament and played well against top teams. Its good to know theres still a few things we can improve on as well," said Venus who is playing his first tournament with Lindstedt.

They face fourth seeds Marcel Granollers (Spain) and American Jack Sock in the final which proceeds the singles final of Marin Cilic (Croatia) and Kei Nishikori (Japan).

"Were confident with the way we are playing. The final will be tough, both players (Granollers and Sock) are top singles and doubles players, but well go out there and work on a plan and get out there and see what happens."

Making the final is likely to improve the New Zealanders ranking to the low 30s. A tournament win would propel him into the top 30 in the world.

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from New Zealand Tennis