American veteran Rajeev Ram has pulled out through injury, notifying the tournament organisers at 10am on Saturday.
Ram, who was paired with compatriot Christian Harrison, suffered the injury in the semifinal last night and wasunable to overcome it, despite treatment on Friday night.
Instead of the final, a doubles exhibition will be played with Kiwi Isaac Becroft stepping in to partner Harrison against Venus and Mektic.
Tournament director Nicolas Lamperin said injuries are always a shame, particularly ahead of a final.
“It’s always a shame when it’s a final but I don’t think you would pull out of the final if you didn’t have a proper injury, I’m very sorry for the crowd but I’m also very sorry for the player.”
Lamperin there will be one set of doubles played before the winner’s ceremony.
“Isaac was the one we found training on court two and he’s agreed too, so we’ll have one set and then we’ll do the ceremony on court.”
It means Venus and Croatian Nikola Mektic take their first title as a new combination.
It will be recorded as Venus’ second Auckland trophy, after he won the tournament here with Mate Pavic in 2016.
Though it is in strange circumstances, it means Venus becomes just the third Kiwi to win multiple doubles titles on these courts, after Chris Lewis (1977, 1983 and 1985) and Russell Simpson (1977, 1983).
