Kiwi doubles specialist Michael Venus has claimed his first title with new Australian partner John Peers, winning the Dubai Tennis Championships on Sunday (NZ time).
The duo needed just 59 minutes to win the title, beating Venus' former partner Raven Klaasen and Oliver Marach 6-3, 6-2.
Venus competed with South African Klassen for 2018-19 and had some success but the pair agreed to part ways after finishing runners-up at the ATP Finals in London.
The Dubai Tennis Championships was the fourth tournament Venus and Peers have competed in as a pairing.
"[With] any new partnership, you don't know how it's going to go till you get out there really until you get on the court and you start to understand exactly what your partner likes to see in certain situations, how they react to things and that, it takes time to figure those things out," said Venus.
"We spent probably the past two or three weeks sitting down, trying to go over it to try to have a better understanding. I think that helped us."
Venus adds an 11th tour-level crown to his collection. The 32-year-old has lifted a trophy in each of the six seasons since his first title run in Nice in 2015.
The pair will share US$181,360 (NZ$290,000) in prize money for winning the tournament.
"[There is] a lot of excitement," said Peers.
"We worked hard the past few months to try to play at this level for a whole tournament. It was really good and pleasing we were able to do that together.
"I know we'll take a lot of confidence with that moving forward, take a look at the areas we need to keep working on. We have got to keep improving."
