Michael Venus has fallen agonisingly short of notching up one of the finest wins of his doubles career.
The French Open champion and his South African partner Raven Klaasen have lost a thriller to the 4th seeds Bob and Mike Bryan in the Miami Open quarter finals.
The most successfuldoubles team in the history of the game has fought back from losing the first set to win 3-6 7-6 (5) 10-8 in 1 hr 25. Venus and Klaasen will be kicking themselves however after blowing a 4-1 and 5-3 lead in the second set tiebreak.
The Bryan's have won 16 Grand Slams and over 100 ATP Tour titles together but were pushed to the limit by the relatively new Kiwi South African combination.
Things started superbly for Venus and Klaasen who broke left hander Bob Bryan in his opening service game and quickly took control of the first set. Venus and Klaasen served superbly in the opening set and broke right handed Mike Bryan in the 12th game to take the opening set 6-3.
The American's upped their game in the second set and created a handful of break point chances. Games went with serve until the 7th game before Venus inexplicably lost his serve to love. But Venus redeemed himself in the very next game as he first hit a forehand winner down the line to set up a break point and then a backhand winner cross court to level things up at 4-4.
The set went to a tie breaker and Venus and Klaasen led 4-1 and 5-3 before the Bryan's rattled off four straight points to win the tie breaker 7-5 to force a deciding match tie break.
It was tight throughout the first to 10 point tiebreak but the Bryan's were able to convert their first match point to take it 10-8 and advance to the semi finals.
Venus will now have a week off before turning his attention to the European clay court season. He is mulling over whether to play the ATP 250 tournament in Marrakech, Morocco as a tune up for his debut at the Monte Carlo Masters in mid April.
