Tennis: Michael Venus receives favourable draw for his French Open title defence

Michael Venus. Photo / Doug Sherring

Defending champion Michael Venus and his South African doubles partner Raven Klaasen have been seeded 10th for the French Open.

As a result they have avoided one of the big name pairings in the draw made overnight in Paris.

Venus and Klaasen will face the little known French pair of Corentin Denolly and Alexandre Muller. The 20 and 21 year olds are tour rookies and received wildcards into the main draw.

"I don't know too much about our first round opponents, I see they both played qualifying in singles and are younger French guys who are coming up and they will be wanting to play well at their home Grand Slam and will have quite a bit of French support behind them," Venus said.

Venus won the doubles title in Paris last year with American Ryan Harrison.

It's a good draw for Venus and Klaasen who are seeded to meet the 8th seeds Nikola Mektic of Croatia and Austria's Alexander Peya in the third round.

The other Kiwi in the tournament Artem Sitak and his Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof have avoided seeded opponents in the first round.

They have been pitted against Germany's Andre Begemann and Croatian Antonio Sancic who are also doubles specialists.

Sitak knows the pair well but says "it's a pretty good draw, could have been worse."

"I played with Begemann for five tournaments two years ago and I have played against both him and Sancic separately before. They are not seeded but they made the final in Houston this year so we have to take the match very seriously," Sitak said.

Sitak and Koolhof could face the 9th seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and American Rajeev Ram if they win their first round match which is likely to be played in a couple of days time.

Meanwhile Erin Routliffe has won her first round qualifying match at the ITF tournament in Hua Hin Thailand. The 23 year old has beaten Australian Alana Parnaby 7-5 6-2.

Routliffe will next face Thailand's Tamachan Momkoonthod.

The Kiwi and her Mexican partner Victoria Rodriguez are the top seeds in the doubles.

They face a Serbian and Slovakian pair in the first round.