Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Michael Venus of New Zealand. Photo / Getty
Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Michael Venus of New Zealand. Photo / Getty
There was double doubles delight for New Zealand on Saturday at Wimbledon, with Michael Venus and Artem Sitak both winning their second round matches.
Venus and his South African partner Raven Klaasen had a fairly straight forward 6-4 6-3 6-4 win over Marcelo Arevalo from El Salvador and his Chileanpartner Hans Podlipnik-Castillo.
It was a comfortable win for Venus and Klaasen, against a pairing that needed three days and over five hours on court to win their first round match.
They got just one break in each set, while only had to defend one break point in the match themselves.
Venus serve remained big throughout the match on court 14 and while there wasn't the same atmosphere for this match as there was in their first round victory, that can be put down to two things.
Firstly that Lleyton Hewitt wasn't on the other side of the net and secondly, England were playing Sweden in the quarterfinals of the World Cup at the same time.
But there was drama on court 17 with Sitak and his Indian partner Divij Sharan coming back from losing the first two sets to win 6-7 4-6 6-3 7-6 6-4 over Julio Peralta from Chile and Argentina's Horacio Zeballos in three hours 22 minutes.
The first set went the way of Peralta and Zeballos, coming back from 5-2 down in the tiebreak.
The Chile/Argentinian team backed that up by holding onto an early break in the second set.
So down 2-0, it was a long way back for Sitak and Sharan.
New Zealand doubles player Artem Sitak. Photo / Photosport
But they showed plenty of fighting spirit as they got an early break to win the third set and Sitak hit a winner on set point in the tiebreak in the next.
In the deciding fifth set Sitak and Sharan had a match point at 4-5. Sitak put up a lob from the serve, Sharan got back a short ball and it clipped the net cord as he played it back, and the ball dropped in as Peralta and Zeballos stood helpless.
"I saw it hit the net tape and knew it was going to go over and they weren't going to get to it," Sitak said.
"My face was probably priceless when I watched it go over, I couldn't believe it, winning a match on the net cord, I don't think I've ever done that and I'll take it."
Sitak said he and Sharan stayed positive they could win the match, despite being in a tough position after losing the first two sets.
"I think it's my third two sets to love comeback," he said.
"So I've been there before and know that anything is possible in those five-set matches. You just have to believe and I think we did that really well.
"Divij told me after the second set to keep battling, keep working hard and see what happens.
"He's played a bunch of five-set matches, so has been there too and the belief was a huge key in this one."
Meanwhile, In the juniors, the Swiss based Lulu Sun, who was born in New Zealand, defeated Marta Custic from Spain 6-1 6-3 in the first round.
While in the mixed doubles, Marcus Daniell and Nadiia Kichenok from Ukraine lost their second round mixed doubles match against Juan Sebastian Cabal from Colombia and American Abigail Spears, 7-6 6-3.
But late in the day Venus and Katrina Srebotnik beat Anastasia Rodionova and Andrei Vasilevski 6-3 6-7 6-3.
