Venus and Puetz forced to pull out of Stockholm

Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz’s hopes of qualifying for the season ending ATP World Tour Finals in Turin have suffered a setback. The second seeds have been forced to pull out of the Stockholm Open with Puetz suffering a back injury.

It’s unclear whether the injury will side line Puetz for any length of time with just two weeks remaining in the regular season, ATP 500 tournaments in Vienna and Basel and the Paris Masters 1000 tournament.

Venus and Puetz are 9^th and 10^th in the individual ATP doubles rankings and are eight in the race to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in Turin next month. However; a number of teams are within striking distance of the Kiwi and German and if they are unable to play, will miss out on a place in the elite eight team field in Turin.