Kiwis on fire: Routliffe, Venus light up US Open doubles

New Zealand tennis enjoyed a golden day at the US Open, with Michael Venus and Erin Routliffe both winning their latest matches to keep their incredible runs going at the final grand slam of the year.

Venus and his Indian partner Yuki Bhambri defeated Rajeev Ram from the United States and Croatia’s Nikola Mektic 6-3 6-7(6) 6-3 on Stadium 17 in their quarterfinal showdown.

Then later on Louis Armstrong Stadium, Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski knocked out the No 2 seeds with a 6-4 6-3 semifinal victory over the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini.

It has been a stunning fortnight for both Kiwi players who have overcome tough patches this season, but hit their best form towards the end of the season.

For the men’s quarterfinal, Mektic was broken when serving at 1-2 in the opening set.

Ram and Mektic put pressure on Venus during his service games, but the Kiwi stayed strong and Bhambri put away a volley on the first set point.

There were breaks to each team in the second set and the tiebreak was also tight, but crucially, Bhambri double faulted on set point.

However, the No 14 seeds rallied for the deciding set and secured their place in the semifinals, which will be played on Thursday (Friday NZ time).

For Routliffe and Dabrowski, this was a blockbuster matchup against one of the other pairings that has been dominating women’s doubles the last couple of years, along with Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.

But for this semifinal, Routliffe and Dabrowski were able to have one of their best performances of the year together.

The Kiwi/Canadian team converted the only break point in the opening set, while they grabbed two breaks in the second set, including one when Paolini was serving to stay in the match.

In her post match interview, Routliffe said she and Dabrowski knew they had to stick to their game plan.

“All credit to them, they’re an amazing team,” Routliffe said. 

“We've played them multiple times, so we know that we really have to play on our terms, because they make everybody they play feel really bad. 

“So we were just trying not to have that happen, and I think we did a pretty good job in the big moments of staying together.”

This victory gives Routliffe and Dabrowski the chance to claim their second US Open title in three years and in the final on Friday (Saturday NZ time) they’ll take on Siniakova and Townsend in one of the most hotly anticipated doubles matches of 2025.

“It means everything,” Routliffe said of being in the final. 

“This will be our third slam final and second at the US Open and it means everything.

“I don't know how to explain it, but we're really happy to be back in the final, and excited to play on Friday.”