Venus and Puetz drawn to face top seeds in Vienna

New Zealand’s top ranked doubles player Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz have been drawn against the world’s top ranked doubles pair in the first round of the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna this week.

Venus and Puetz face top seeded Croatians Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic, the Olympic doubles gold medallists.

Marcus Daniell and Brazilian partner Marcelo Demoliner have also received a difficult draw at the ATP 250 tournament in St Petersburg, their final event of the season. They will play the third seeds El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo and Dutchman Matwe Middelkoop. Daniell lost to the pair at the ATP tournament in Washington DC earlier this year when he was partnering another Brazilian Marcelo Melo.

Erin Routliffe and her American partner Kaitlyn Christian finish their season this week in Romania at the Transylvannia Open. The doubles draw has not yet been released.

Meanwhile Artem Sitak and his Croatian partner Antonio Sancic have lost in the semi finals of the ATP Challenger tournament in Losinj. They have been beaten in a crazy match judging by the score 0-6, 6-0, 10-5 by Romania’s Victor Vlad Cornea and Turkey’s Erdi Kirkin. Sitak and Sancic play another Challenger tournament this week at Ismaning in Germany. Seeded third they face Moldova’s Alexander Cozbinov and American Maxime Cressy in the first round.