New Zealand's top ranked doubles player Michael Venus has made a solid start to the grass court tennis season, winning through to the second round at the ATP tournament in S-Hertgotenbosch in Holland.
Venus, seeded second with his South African doubles partner Raven Klaasen, have beaten the Australian wildcard pair of Alex Bolt and former world number one Lleyton Hewitt 7-5 7-5 in 1 hr 14.
Venus and Klaasen managed to convert 5 of their 6 break point chances during the match while dropping serve three times themselves.
Venus and Klaasen had lost a doubles match to Hewitt in Estoril on clay earlier in the season.
They will face Australian Matthew Ebden and Tunisia's Malek Jaziri in the quarter finals tomorrow morning.
Artem Sitak and his new Indian partner Divij Sharan will face Luxembourg's Gilles Muller and Monaco's Romain Arneodo in the second round tonight.
New Zealand's top singles player Rubin Statham has had a tough second round loss at the ATP Challenger tournament in Almaty in Kazakhstan. A day after beating world number Austrian 4th seed Sebastian Offner, Statham has lost a three hour battle to Chinese Taipei's Yang Tsung-hua 6-3 6-7,(5) 7-6 (4) in the second round.