Kiwi tennis players, Routliffe, Venus score wins
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
Significant wins for New Zealand tennis players Erin Routliffe and Michael Venus at their WTA and ATP tournaments around the world.
At the WTA 500 Charleston Open tournament Routliffe teamed up with American Jennifer Brady - former singles finalist at the Australian to beat Asia Muhammad and Jessica Pegula.
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Routliffe had teamed with Muhammad in her tournaments this year, however the results hadn't been as forthcoming as they wanted.
The New Zealander and American won 6-4, 7-6 (4) racing to a 4-0 lead in the first set before being broken in sixth game as the set was completed in 38 minutes.
Routliffe says this tournament is her first with Brady who is a singles player.
In the second set Routliffe and Brady broke their opponents in the fifth game and held a lead until the tenth game when they were broken back. The match then went to a tiebreaker with Routliffe and Brady "playing a good tiebreak" winning it 7-4.
"We had a lot of fun out there today. We knew it was going to be a tough first round given that all four on court are good players. It was a high quality match," said Routliffe.
The pair will play Miyu Kato of Japan and Mexican Giuliana Olmos in the quarterfinals.
At the same tournament Lulu Sun had opportunities but lost to 72nd ranked Yulia Putinseva 7-6 (6) 6-2 in the first round of singles.
At the completion of Charleston Routliffe and Sun will join the New Zealand team in New Delhi India to compete at the Billie Jean Cup Group 1 (Asia/Oceania) event from April 7 to 11.
Meanwhile Venus had his first win back from his lengthy injury.
He teamed with Indian Yuki Bhambri to be seeded third and defeat Fabian Marozsán from Hungary and Alexander Shevchenko (Kazahkstan) 6-4, 3-6 10-3 in the first round of the ATP tournament in Bucharest.
At the ATP tournament at Marrakech the New Zealand combination of Finn Reynolds and James Watt lost in the first round to Americans Robert Cash and JJ Tracy 7-6 (7), 6-7 (5) 8-10.
