Tennis: Michael Venus beats former doubles partner to reach ATP Masters final

  • 12/08/2018
Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen are through to the Canadian Open doubles final.
Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen are through to the Canadian Open doubles final. Photo credit: Getty Images

Kiwi Michael Venus is set for another big payday, reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 final after a stunning win over the world's top-ranked doubles team in Toronto.

Venus and his South African partner Raven Klaasen beat top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic 4-6, 7-6, 10-3 in one hour and 36 minutes.

The victory follows wins over fifth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo and their Wimbledon final conquerors Mike Bryan and Jack Sock earlier in the Canadian Open.

Beating Marach and Pavic is a massive achievement as the European duo have been a dominating force in 2018, having won four titles including the Australian Open, after starting the year with victories in Doha and at Auckland's ASB Classic.

After failing to save the only break point against their serve in the first set, Venus and Klaasen dominated the second but still needed a tiebreaker to win it.

They squandered a 4-2 lead when Venus was broken, and had a couple of set points at 5-4 on Pavic's serve but couldn't close it out. Venus made no mistake serving at 6-5 in the tie-break.

The Kiwi and South African were aided by Marach and Pavic serving eight double faults between them.

The victory finished with a brilliant forehand return of service winner from Venus as he and Klaasen won eight straight points in the match tie-break to clinch the win.

The win also meant the world to Venus as he and Pavic were doubles partners in 2015 and 2016. Pavic decided to split from the Kiwi as he wanted to play alongside a higher-ranked player. 

Venus and Klassen will face either the second seeds Finland's Henri Kontinen and Australian John Peers or Croatian Nikola Mektic and Austrian Alexander Peya in the final.

Newshub.