Routliffe, Venus losses in Washington

Erin Routliffe lost the doubles semis at Washinton in a supertiebreak with Asia Muhammad PHOTO: NZSW

Tiebreak losses for Erin Routliffe and Michael Venus in their respective doubles matches in Washington. .

Fourth seeds Venus and Yuki Bhambri (India) lost 6-3 4-6 10-7 to Neal Skupski from Britain and Australia’s John-Patrick Smith in a quarterfinal match that lasted for just over an hour and a half.

LATEST HEADLINES:

Alker drops, other Kiwis miss cuts

Black Caps retain Bracwell for test

Routliffe, Venus win in Washington

Black Ferns World Cup squad named

Marathon MTB Nationals venues

The super tiebreak was close for the first half of it, on serve at 4-5, but Skupski and Smith then got a couple of mini breaks on the next two points and were able to keep that lead for the remainder of the match.

As top seeds Routliffe and her partner for the week, Asia Muhammad (United States), lost their semifinal against the US pair of Caroline Dolehide and Sofia Kenin 7-6(4) 6-4.

Routliffe and Muhammad did have a 5-3 lead in the opening set, but the Americans then got on top and were up 6-5 before play had to be suspended for lightning.

When play restarted Dolehide and Kenin finished off the first set, where over it they managed to save five set points against they.

Dolehide and Kenin then went on to pick up the only break of the second set.

Routliffe now head to Montreal for the WTA 1000 tournament, while Venus goes to Toronto for the ATP 1000 event.