Tennis: Michael Venus falls short in doubles quarterfinal at Paris Masters

Kiwi Michael Venus will turn his attention to the ATP World Tour finals in London after losing his doubles quarterfinal at the Paris Masters this morning.

Venus and his South African partner Raven Klaasen, seeded 6th have lost 7 6 (4) 6-0 to Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer in 1 hour 11.

It was a tight first set with both team's getting few looks on the return of serve and creating just one break point chance each. The set went to a tie-break and both Venus and Klaasen dropped service points as their opponents wrapped up the set in 45 minutes.

The 6th seeds will quickly want to forget a lopsided second set.

Venus dropped serve in the second game, not helped by a double fault at 0-15 to put him under pressure. Tecau's sharpness at the net brought up four break points and while Venus and Klaasen saved three they couldn't save a fourth.

Venus and Klaasen couldn't get a look on Tecau or Rojer's serve in the second set and after Klaasen dropped serve for 0-4 it was effectively over. Venus was broken a second time as he and Klaasen dropped the second set 6-0.

Venus will head home to London for a week of practice ahead of the World Tour Finals at London's 02 Arena. The tournament features the best eight teams in a round robin format with the pair's split into two groups of four.

Last year Venus made his debut in London with American Ryan Harrison on the back of their French Open success, and they won their three round-robin matches before losing in the semi-finals.

It's a lucrative week at the 02 Arena with Venus and Klaasen earning a US$100,000 bonus just for qualifying and US$38,000 for each match win. That increases to $103,000 for winning the semi-final and $200,000 for winning the final with an undefeated champion pair pocketing US $517,000.