New Zealand's Michael Venus and his South African partner Raven Klaasen have staged a brilliant comeback to reach the quarter finals at the Madrid Masters.
They've knocked out the eighth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6 7-6 (4) 10-5 in 1 hr 35.
Venus and Klaasen saved nine of 10 break point chances against their serve in the match. At 4-4 in the second set Venus and Klaasen looked down and out when the South African found himself 0-40 on serve. However they rallied to get back to deuce before Venus clinched the deciding point with a volley winner.
"We hung tough and found our way through that game," Venus said. "I think that gave us a bit of confidence and energy and we used that later on and played a very good match tie break."
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At 5-5 Venus saved another break point on serve and the set eventually went to a tie break which Venus and Klaasen clinched on their third set point to force a deciding match tie break.
Momentum was with Venus and Klaasen and they quickly took a 6-2 lead after Bopanna double faulted. Klaasen then set up match point at 9-5 with a forehand volley which they clinched when Bopanna netted a return.
Venus and Klaasen had earlier made a sluggish start to the match against a pair they had narrowly beaten earlier in the year on hard courts in Dubai. Venus saved three break points in the opening game of the match before Klaasen dropped his first service game to hand the only break of the first set to the Indian and French combination.
It proved to be the only break of the match with Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin taking the opening set 6-4 in 33 minutes. Venus and Klaasen couldn't fashion many chances to break their opponents serve (3) and they kept in the match by showing some real resilience when staring down a barrage of break points against them.
Venus and Klaasen will play the Croatian Austrian pair of Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya in the quarter-finals after they upset the third seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers 6-4, 6-4. That match is scheduled for between 2.30-3am NZT Saturday.
This matches Venus's best performance at the Masters 1000 tournaments this season and the points gained this week should see him climb a couple of places in the rankings from his current position of 16. He has no points to defend next week in Rome either and could potentially be close to the top 10 by the time he starts the defence of his French Open title in just over two weeks.