South Africa's Raven Klaasen, left, and New Zealand's Michael Venus touch hands during their men's doubles final match against Mike Bryan and Jack Sock. Photo / AP.
South Africa's Raven Klaasen, left, and New Zealand's Michael Venus touch hands during their men's doubles final match against Mike Bryan and Jack Sock. Photo / AP.
Wimbledon doubles runner up Michael Venus has made a winning return to ATP tour action at the Citi Open in Washington DC.
Venus and his South African partner Raven Klaasen have beaten American Rajeev Ram and Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer 7-6 (4) 7-6 (6) in 1 hour 42 inthe first round of the ATP 500 tournament.
In a tight match Venus and Klaasen made the most of their chances, converting three of their four break points, but also had seven double faults between them.
Venus and Klaasen will face the Colombian pair of Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal for a place in the semi finals after they upset the second seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers.
Meanwhile 21-year-old Kiwi Paige Hourigan has advanced to the second round at the ITF US $25,000 tournament in Fort Worth Texas. Hourigan who won two rounds of qualifying to make the main draw, has beaten American Alexandra Riley 6-1 6-3 in 1 hr 06.
Hourigan who will return to college in the US next month to finish off her degree, has won 10 of her last 12 matches. She faced just one break point in the match and converted five breaks from as many chances.
